A Melbourne Cup victory with a daughter of his former Group One star Shocking would be a dream come true for Australian owner-breeder Laurence Eales, who is hoping Shockletz can follow in her sire's footsteps at Flemington on Tuesday.
The Ciaron Maher-trained mare secured her place in the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) with an impressive victory in the Gr.3 Archer Stakes (2500m) at Flemington in September.
Bred and raised at Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand, Shockletz is also providing a timely reminder that late foals can develop into elite racehorses.
The daughter of Shocking wasn't born until November 27, 2021, following a service to her dam Zelt shortly before Christmas the previous year.
Eales, who raced Shocking to victory in the 2009 Melbourne Cup, has never been concerned about breeding late foals, particularly when producing horses destined for staying careers.
“Zelt is the type of mare that would put everything into her foal, so it would take a bit of time for her to recover after foaling,” Eales said.
“I don't have a problem with late foals. I'm generally patient with my horses, and most of the horses I breed are classic staying types that aren't going to be going early.
“If you go to the sales and you can see a horse is a late foal, you can see they're a bit backward in their development, but often they'll furnish out into a nice horse.”
Rich Hill Stud principal John Thompson shares that view, pointing to another Melbourne Cup winner bred at the Waikato nursery, Prince Of Penzance, who was born on November 20.
“It's something we seem to have seen more over the years, a reluctance to breed a mare once it hits mid-November,” Thompson said.
“I appreciate that people believe the extra couple of months can make a difference at yearling sales, but there are other ways to sell horses nowadays, with Ready to Run or selling them off the track.”
Thompson said foaling dates remained an important consideration for yearling buyers, despite outstanding racehorses such as Lonhro, Dundeel, Anamoe, Nature Strip and Legarto all being born from mid-November onwards.
For Eales, Shockletz's Melbourne Cup tilt carries particular significance given his long association with her sire.
He retained shares in Shocking when the son of Street Cry retired to Rich Hill Stud and subsequently purchased Zelt as a 14-year-old specifically to breed her to his former Cup hero.
Zelt had already produced three-race winner Battlecamp and his brother Horrifying, who went on to win seven races and more than A$700,000.
Shockletz remained in New Zealand during her early development before joining Maher's Australian stable, with Eales seeing her for the first time when she arrived in February of her two-year-old season.
“Once she got here, I thought she was a tad small but she was strong, and once she had her first prep with Ciaron Maher, you could see she went ahead in leaps and bounds,” he said.
“She really strengthened up in the front shoulder and the chest and over the rump. With every prep she had you could see she was improving.
“To me, the Shockings are usually late-maturing, depending on the mare they go to, and take a while to develop. If you're patient, which I am, it rewards you.”
Despite her steady improvement, Eales admitted a Melbourne Cup campaign had initially seemed a distant prospect.
“Her last prep, we had her going through the grades and thought we might get her into a good mares race in spring,” he said.
“Ciaron rang me up earlier in the year and said things aren't going that well at the moment, let's just pull up stumps and work our way back from the Archer and start again.
“I said you're the coach, I'm happy to do that, and that's the plan we followed.”
The decision paid dividends when Shockletz, wearing blinkers for the first time, powered to a two-and-a-quarter-length victory in the Archer Stakes to secure her Melbourne Cup berth.
She subsequently finished sixth in the Gr.2 Herbert Power Stakes (2400m) at Caulfield before finishing strongly for second behind Soverato in the Gr.3 Tesio Stakes (2000m) at Flemington eight days ago.
“We sent her to Caulfield to see how she goes and took the blinkers off to see what difference that made, and we found she lost concentration again a bit,” Eales said.
“So we went to the Tesio to give her a little bit more fitness and put the blinkers back on to make sure we're happy with that before we go back on the big stage, and that did the trick.”
The Melbourne Cup pathway is a familiar one for Eales, with Shocking winning the Gr.3 Lexus Stakes (2500m), now known as the Archer Stakes, on Victoria Derby Day in 2009 before backing up three days later to claim the Cup.
Seventeen years on, his daughter has won the same qualifying race, giving Eales the opportunity to complete a remarkable family double.
“It all happened pretty quick. One day we're racing on Derby Day in the Archer, and the next minute we're in the Cup on Tuesday,” Eales recalled of Shocking's campaign.
“I thought it would be great to run in the top 10 and just to be in it, it's a lifetime achievement, let alone to win it. It was a pretty wild sort of dream.”
Shockletz has drawn barrier 17 and will carry 51kg on Tuesday, although connections may be forced to find a replacement for regular rider Harry Coffey, who suffered a suspected fractured collarbone in a fall from Pondalowie in Saturday's Gr.1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington.
With Shockletz set to tackle Australia's most famous race, Eales is daring to dream of another Melbourne Cup triumph.
“He's a very underrated stallion. When he started his career, I thought it would be a dream if we could go back to the Cup with one of his progeny.
“Now that it's about to happen, it's incredible, and if she won, it would be surreal.” - NZ Racing Desk
