The Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) is a sentimental favourite for expat Kiwi trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, who will be seeking to score their second victory in the Flemington Classic on Saturday.
The Cranbourne-based couple won the race 15 years ago, when training out of Cambridge, with Sangster, who carried the well-known silks of part-owner Tommy Heptinstall.
The win helped launch their careers, while the trip proved to be the catalyst for Young and Busuttin to cross the Tasman and open their Melbourne stable.
“Being our first Group One, it was fairly special,” Busuttin said. “He was our first good horse, and you build off the back of it. Every trainer needs a good horse to get them going and he was it for us.
“It (trip) certainly planted the seed in our head (to move to Melbourne).”
Bred by Patricia Buckingham under her Emblem Ltd banner, Sangster is by the late champion New Zealand sire Savabeel and out of winning Spectrum mare Quinta Special, a half-sister to stakes performer Amalie Bay.
Sangster was offered through Windsor Park Stud’s 2010 New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling Sale draft but failed to attract a bid. He returned to the Karaka sales ring later that year through Kilgravin Lodge’s Ready to Run Sale draft and was bought by Busuttin for $19,000.
“We had actually done the work on him leading into the breeze-up, so we knew he could gallop, so it was very straightforward,” Busuttin said.
Sangster made the perfect start to his career, winning on debut at Hawera as a late two-year-old before running 11th in the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m).
He put in an eye-catching trial at Te Teko a month later under James McDonald, which was enough for Heptinstall and his fellow owners to give Busuttin and Young the green light for an Australian spring campaign.
Busuttin said they had taken inspiration from the Murray and Bjorn Baker-trained Lion Tamer winning the Victoria Derby the year prior, and they opted to begin their path towards the Melbourne Classic in Sydney.
“We watched Lion Tamer do it the year before and it is a race that Tommy Heptinstall always wanted to win, so he was basically the brains behind the operation,” Busuttin said.
“He (Sangster) had trialled up well in the spring at the Te Teko trials. It is a long way to the 2000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m) when you are up and going early in August, while there is a lot of prizemoney on offer in Sydney and Melbourne in the spring before then, so we had to take that opportunity.”
Sangster scored a confidence-boosting win in his Australian debut at Warwick Farm in benchmark 65 grade before finishing runner-up in the Listed Ming Dynasty Quality Handicap (1400m). Following an unplaced run in the Gr.3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) he bounced back to place in the Gr.1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) to round out his Sydney campaign before heading to Melbourne.
He continued his purple patch of form when runner-up in the Gr.3 Norman Robinson Stakes (2000m) before going one better in the Victoria Derby.
Sangster continued to perform at the highest level as an older horse, adding the Gr.1 International Stakes (2000m) and Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) to his record before retirement.
While Sangster’s Victoria Derby is Busuttin and Young’s sole triumph in the race, they have established a strong record in the Classic, having also finished runner-up in 2017 with Sully and last year with Arcora, and they will contest their 10th consecutive Victoria Derby this weekend where they will have a two-pronged attack with Cignetti and Icy You.
“It is (our 10th consecutive run in the race), but we have had a few placings over the last few goes so it would be nice to win one again,” Busuttin said.
Cignetti is a New Zealand-bred son of Super Seth, who is also a New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale graduate, with Busuttin Racing having bought him out of Ohukia Lodge’s 2025 draft for $220,000.
He ran fifth on debut in the Listed ANZAC Day Stakes (1400m) at Flemington in his sole start as a two-year-old, but has come of age at three, winning first-up over 1400m at Sale in August before placing in his subsequent three starts, including the Listed Super Impose Stakes (1800m) and Gr.3 Sportsbet Classic (2000m), formerly known as the Norman Robinson Stakes.
Busuttin has a high opinion of the Waikato Stud-bred gelding and believes he is a live chance in this weekend’s feature.
“He has had a good, solid Derby prep,” Busuttin said. “He won his maiden and he was unlucky at his second start, he should have won, and in the lead-up he has run third in both of them and narrowly beaten in the last one.
“Everything is aiming up towards the 2500m. As much as you don’t know, I think it is no concern. It is pretty safe to say that he will get over the 2500m no dramas.
“He is a nice horse. He is more than above average, and whether it is the Derby or later on, he will have a nice win in him somewhere.”
Busuttin is also upbeat about the prospects of Icy You.
“He will definitely stay the trip,” Busuttin said. “He probably lacks a bit of class, but he is straightforward. He has had a nice trouble-free prep, he is rock-hard fit, this is his sixth run. He was narrowly beaten last start.”
Cignetti has drawn barrier 12 and will be ridden by Cox Plate-winning jockey William Pike, while Icy You has drawn barrier 10 and will be ridden by Craig Williams.
TAB bookmakers are currently offering $19 for Icy You and $20 for Cignetti, in a market headed by the Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich-trained Cormier at $4.60.
“It is a very even Derby, there are no standout horses like Observer from last year,” Busuttin said. “Any one of 10 horses can probably win the race and it be no surprise.”
Meanwhile, Busuttin said his smart three-year-old Blind Raise has pulled up well following his 10th placed run in last Saturday’s Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m), and he has been sent for a spell ahead of an autumn campaign.
It was an anticlimactic end to a pleasing spring campaign that netted the son of Ace High victories in the Listed McKenzie Stakes (1300m) and Gr.3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m), and a brave runner-up result behind Warwoven in the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m).
“He pulled up well,” Busuttin said. “If he was a trotter, he was in the death on a mental speed. The two horses in front thought they were Oakleigh Plate horses, and they ran themselves into the ground, along with the horses sitting up in the first six. I think the first six that were around the corner were the last six home.
“The way the race was run, he was no chance. He maybe didn’t stay, there would be a big question mark on that, but whether he did or not, he wasn’t going to get an opportunity to do so.
“He has gone to the paddock sound, so he will be alright for the autumn.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
