'For me, the National Stud needs to be able to look after itself - but it's also important that we're a beacon for the thoroughbred industry'

At the end of the Rowley Paddocks, a distant edge of the National Stud’s boundary, is a short section of running rails.

Very occasionally, the youngsters out grazing in those paddocks will get the chance to watch a bit of sport for free, as the view looks out across the July course. 

It is understandably a favourite spot of the stud’s chief executive, Anna Kerr, who points out quite poetically that the horses can see their destiny here. Kind Of Blue, the young Group 1 sprinter in waiting bred for the Morris and Hopper families, is the latest of many to have made that leap.