Coolmore hold off three challengers for A$50m stake in Golden Slipper favourite

The owners of A$50 million (£25.8m/€30.3m) colt Storm Boy, the unbeaten Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner, knew they had a serious juvenile on their hands before he’d even raced.

So, too, did a number of studmasters, who made unsuccessful initial overtures about buying into the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained juvenile following the colt’s two impressive Sydney barrier trial victories at Rosehill and Warwick Farm on October 27 and November 8.

But with three subsequent summer wins on the board – posted at Rosehill on December 2, in the Group 3 BJ McLachlan Stakes in Brisbane on December 23 and his blistering Magic Millions performance at the Gold Coast three weeks later – the skyrocketing offers continued to flow, befitting a colt capable of completing a rare Sydney autumn two-year-old clean sweep. 

It prompted Storm Boy’s connections, headed by the Cunningham family of the Hunter Valley nursery Ridgmont Farm, to reevaluate their position and decide to sell down a controlling interest in the valuable stallion prospect at least two months ahead of what was initially planned if he continued to live up to the racecourse hype.

After weeks of speculation that Storm Boy had been sold, Coolmore confirmed on Wednesday it had finalised a massive deal to secure the Golden Slipper favourite, with the last piece of the puzzle coming when the horse passed an extensive veterinary examination.

Bott appointed bloodstock agent Jim Clarke to handle negotiations with the four stud farms who had made an offer for Storm Boy on behalf of the colt’s owners.

Clarke is also closely aligned with the Cunninghams, helping advise and manage Gary and Loralie and their children’s bloodstock interests. 

Coolmore and Yulong tabled the most compelling and lucrative offers for Storm Boy, offers that would value him at more than A$50m if he was to win a suite of races including the Slipper, the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and the Champagne Stakes.

Significant kicker payments, on top of an eight-figure sum paid upfront, would also be due if Storm Boy can win any signature races at three, such as the Coolmore Stud Stakes or The Everest.

It is believed the Newgate Farm-China Horse Club partnership was not one of the four parties to make an offer for the two-year-old.

In a breakthrough deal for Clarke, the young Brisbane-based agent considered the respective studs’ offers at Tulloch Lodge stables at Randwick on Monday, January 22, prior to making a recommendation to Bott and the colt’s syndicate to side with Coolmore for Storm Boy, whose currency was enhanced due to the fact he was a son of a growing international sire influence in Justify.

The meeting lasted for more than eight hours as the various components of each deal and how to extract the most value from their hulking two-year-old was debated. 

“The reality with this horse is with his physique, his pedigree and his performance, it puts him in very rare air,” Clarke told ANZ Bloodstock News. 

“He was in very high demand and I think the fact that he was so popular and that there were so many farms keen to buy him, to some degree that made the whole process quite straightforward. 

Jim Clarke (centre): 'He was in very high demand'

“It was a matter of extracting the best deal we could from the people interested in him on behalf of the ownership group.”

A Godolphin Flying Start graduate, Clarke was exposed to some stallion deals through Sheikh Mohammed’s global racing and breeding empire but the Storm Boy contract was a major milestone.

“We wanted a deal that was going to allow the original ownership group to get the benefit of the horse’s performances should he go on and become champion two-year-old, winning the Golden Slipper and/or the Triple Crown and/or any of the major three-year-old races,” he said.

“For the deal to be struck it had to be structured in a way where the ownership group could benefit in any significant increase in the horse’s stud value based on his racing performance.

“I’ve been involved to a certain degree in the past when I was working with Godolphin, but we negotiated what will potentially be the highest and most valuable deal in Australian history should he win the Golden Slipper.”

Such was the level of interest in Storm Boy, which intensified after the colt’s two-and-a-half length domination of the Magic Millions field on January 13, Coolmore was forced to move earlier than it ever has before to secure an in-training stallion prospect or risk losing out to one of its rivals.

Storm Boy’s Gold Coast performance was labelled by prominent Australian ratings experts as one of, if not the best, Magic Millions victories in a quarter of a century, which further fuelled the studs’ race against time.

Coolmore's Tom Magnier said: “We are extremely excited to secure Storm Boy with a great group of clients and friends from all over the world. His performance in the Magic Millions had to be seen to be believed." 

“He had to do the work at both ends and broke his opponents’ hearts in a similar way to what Justify himself did in his own racing career. We have had a close eye on this colt since his first trial and he has raised the bar each time he has been seen in public.” 

Tom Magnier: mightily impressed by Storm Boy and delighted with dealCredit: Mark Evans

Coolmore won last year’s Slipper with Shinzo, a probable retiree to the Jerrys Plains stud later this year, and its colts partnership also owns the recent impressive Chris Waller-trained Randwick winner Switzerland, a potential autumn rival for Storm Boy.

The Cunninghams, who also race a significant number of fillies as a way of growing their Ridgmont Farm-based broodmare band, have retained a five per cent share in Storm Boy while the majority of their partners have also kept equity in the colt, a A$460,00 purchase at last year’s Magic Millions sale by his trainers and Kestrel Thoroughbreds' Bruce Slade.

“With the colts we have a different model in that we identify colts we are interested in and we let it play out, we see who buys the horse and then we look to buy a share in the horse with that trainer,” Mitch Cunningham told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“Funnily enough, with Storm Boy, we had seen a lot of the Justifys and we liked the obvious ones, but after the yearling sales we hadn’t made a meaningful play in the stallion. 

“Justify then started to kick undeniable goals around the world, with Learning To Fly in Australia and City Of Troy being clearly a star of the future [in Europe], so when we got an email from Gai saying they had a Justify with shares available we jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s turned out to be a fairly fortuitous play.”

Out of the DUAL juvenile winner Pelican, a daughter of New Zealand champion sprinter Seachange, Storm Boy will continue to wear the Cunninghams’ navy, gold sash, sleeves and cap silks during the autumn carnival.

Justify has carried all before him, siring the unbeaten Coolmore-owned, Aidan O’Brien-trained City Of Troy and America’s unbeaten juvenile filly Just F Y I, who won two Grade 1s last year for trainer Bill Mott.

Overall, Justify is the sire of 26 individual stakes winners, including the southern hemisphere-bred Learning To Fly, Air Assault, Star Of Justice, Legacies and, of course, Storm Boy.

On the back of his results, Justify will begin stud duties at Ashford Stud in Kentucky later this month at a fee of US$200,000.

Justify: tremendous start to stud careerCredit: Coolmore America

He was rested from a trip to Coolmore Australia in 2022, but returned for last year’s southern hemisphere breeding season, covering 188 mares at a fee of A$77,000.

If he is to shuttle again in 2024 for a fifth southern hemisphere season – and there is a question mark given the stallion’s immense value – his fee will increase dramatically in line with his enhanced reputation.

The Waterhouse-trained Pierro, now at Coolmore, is the most recent Sydney triple crown winner while Capitalist is the last Magic Millions winner to complete the Slipper double.

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