Gai Waterhouse | Gai Waterhouse News 55793 Desert War Passing Revives Memories Of The Greatness Of Gooree Gai

DESERT WAR Passing Revives Memories of the Greatness of Gooree & Gai

Tue, Jul 11, 2023

DESERT WAR Passing Revives Memories of the Greatness of Gooree & Gai

The passing of Desert War last month at the age of 22 revived many fond memories for Gai and the famous Gooree red and black striped silks.

The Gooree and Gai association started in the year 2000, the same year that Desert War was born, and it must be said the 6x Group 1 winner was the headline act for what may have been the most successful trainer/owner combination in Australia over the past 30 years, outside of Godolphin.

Desert War embodied everything that made Gooree horses so successful - forget the breeding and conformation, just incredibly well raised, tough, sound gallopers that you could work hard and feed hard.

Desert War embodied the keys to Gai's greatness too. His front running, bone and muscle style, is Tulloch Lodge typical and the Gooree horses thrived under Gai's training. Their toughness allowed Gai to simply 'outfit' the opposition. 

All in all Desert War'sSstakes wins were part of some 78 Stakes wins and 14 Group 1 wins for Gooree and Gai from 2000 to 2019. 

Gooree Beginnings:

As we understand it, Filipino Businessman Mr Eduardo Cojuangco (San Miguel Corporation) always had a passion for horse racing and breeding, and was a keen student of pedigrees and form. He travelled to Australia frequently through the sixties and struck up a relationship with leading Sydney trainer Neville Begg who would go on to train what might have been Mr Cojuangco's very first racehorse in Australia, a yearling filly purchase by Showdown that he named Kapalaran, meaning Fate or Blessing in Spanish. Blessed she was, with ability, a winner of the Group 1 1000 Guineas, defeating Scomeld and Jewel Flight, along with two other Group wins in the Hobartville and Gloaming Stakes.

The end of Kapalaran's racing career as a 4YO marked the start of Gooree, with Mr Cojuangco purchasing the Mudgee based property from the Foyster family in 1979. The family was well known for breeding and racing great racehorses already, namely Ming Dynasty, John's Hope, Mighty Kingdom, Just Ideal, Our Planet, Double Century and Stylish Century. The success was recognised worldwide with Robert Sangster once describing Gooree as one of the top 10 horse studs in the world. 

It appears to us that Mr Cojuangco was fully aware of the Foyster's success and he duly purchased their prestigious farm, and through the first 20 years of his racing involvement he used training yards which lined up with where the Foyster's had enjoyed their success. Neville Begg predominantly early on and they shared 13 Stakes wins together, Bart Cummings and then his son Anthony and grand-son James had 26 Stakes wins between them including Group 1 colts Hallowed Crown, Your Song and Prized Icon, and Jack Denham trained 7 Stakes wins for Gooree, headed by King Ivor.

Bill Mitchell also trained a notable seven Stakes wins for Gooree through the nineties, four of these won by Social Rule, before Gai and Lee Freedman dominated the Gooree yearling allocations from 2000 onwards and an incredible two decades ensued with Gai training 78 Stakes winners for Mr Cojuangco between 2000 and his passing at age 85 in 2020. Lee Freedman enjoyed considerable success for Gooree through this time too, scoring 31 times at Stakes level in the red and back silks.

That Autumn, with Mr Cojuangco and his family present in Sydney for a big carnival race day over Easter (Saturday, 24 April 2000), Gai saddled three Stakes winners in a row in the famous Gooree silks. According to Andrew Baddock, Gooree's long standing stud manager, 'the boss' was quite reserved and in a bit of shock after the first two won, but with the third Stakes win on the card his emotions got the better of him and 'the boss' erupted in jubilation on course. He could not believe it. The three Stakes winners that day were Actress (Keith Mackay), Valuate (Carbine Club) and Clonmel (Fernhill).

 

The Gai and Gooree combination went on to add 78 Stakes wins together over 19 racing seasons, 14 at Group 1 level through stars like Desert War, Tempest Morn, Northern Meteor, Romantic Touch, Shower Of Roses, Laser Hawk, Romantic Touch, Snowland, and Speak Fondly.

Other points of note:

  • Basra won Gai her first Stakes race out of Australia when winning the Royal Stakes in NZ in 2005
  • Red Hannigan might be the best example of the 'Gooree toughness/soundness' - he raced in the first 2YO trials of his year, ran third in Gai's Golden Slipper trifecta, and then trained on to race every season until the age of 9 where he picked up his 11th and final win in the Broome Cup

Some Context To The Success:

There is no doubt that Gooree was good for Gai, and Gai was good for Gooree. 

The red and black silks were first past the post in 180 Stakes races from 1978 to 2019. With 78 Stakes wins Gai trained roughly half those Black Type successes in her time with Gooree from the year 2000.

To put this in context in terms of Gai's training career which started in 1992, in the 17 years since 2005 (as far back as our records will go via Racing and Sports), Gai has trained 773 Stakes winners at an average of just above 40 Stakes winners per season. Gooree in their time averaged 4 Stakes wins per season for the stable, so roughly we would suggest that 10% of Gai's Stakes winners through Tulloch Lodge were supplied by Gooree from 2000 - 2019. An incredible combination when you consider Gooree supplied Gai with an average of approximately 15 yearlings per year.

It should be noted that this success does not include Gai's Stakes wins for Mr Cojuangco's brother, Henry. The likes of Group 1 winner Amanpour and Stakes winners Gold Water, Turf Express, Rapper Dragon and Sports Edition make the tally 82 Stakes wins for the Gooree/Gai system, despite racing in the yellow and black stripes.

Gooree Now & Moving Forward:

With the passing of Mr Cojuangco in 2020, his family have embraced his legacy and opened the Gooree gates to commercial thoroughbred breeding and education, alongside their 400 hectares of vineyards and cattle and cropping. 

They maintain a small but high quality broodmare band and have enjoyed continued success in their colours this season through Listed Debutante Stakes winner and Group 1 Golden Slipper third place-getter, King's Gambit who they race in partnership with Newgate Farm. 

Gai and Adrian still have a set of the Gooree silks in the office and are lucky enough to train last start 2YO winner, and the currently unbeaten , TROPICAL SQUALL (Prized Icon) for the Cojuangco family. She won on debut at Canterbury in June and there are high hopes that she might add to the Gooree & Gai Stakes winning combination as a 3YO. 

You can learn more about Gooree on their website here and it would be well worth a visit if you are heading in their direction.

Full Circle:

Last year Gooree offered for sale a drop dead gorgeous filly by Champion 2YO and Blue Diamond winner, Written By at the Inglis Classic Sale, a filly with bone and muscle structure that reminded Gai of the best she has trained off of that special Mudgee country. 

It is uncanny that she is by Written By, a colt bred and raced to Group 1 success by Neville Begg, Mr Cojuangco's first Australian trainer, with the pair sharing Group 1 success together. Group 1 success that led to the birth of Gooree as we know it now.

Written By x Nais Ko 2YO Filly

Sale: Inglis Classic Sale 2022

Purchase Price: $160,000

Shares Available: Yes

Watch her gallop footage from this morning here.

Watch her video update from 7th July here.

Click here to view her pedigree and sales page.



This Written By filly is up and going now, and really pleasing us ahead of her first trial next month. She is beautifully bred in true Gooree style, descending from one of the great families in the international stud book which is responsible for no less than 14 Champions inside her first six generations including Fantastic Light, Gorgeous, Music Show, La Alpujarra, Turbulent Descent, Golden Attraction, Desert Lord, Square Angel, Swain, Whobegotyou, Northern Afleet, Hamriya, Brave Cherokee, and Phantom Light.

Closer up, our Gooree bred and raised Written By filly is out of Nais Ko, a winning Exceed and Excel half-sister to Group 1 winning 3YO and sire, Your Song (Fastnet Rock).

We like Written By, his first crop of 2YOs have raced this season and we have been lucky enough to saddle up one of his first two Stakes winners in Tricolours' the unbeaten, very speedy and untapped, The Novelist. A winner of his two starts to date, The Novelist can be seen here winning the Group 3 BJ McLachlan Stakes.

In our video preview this week, Gai, Adrian, Claudia and Bruce get together to discuss the greatness of Gooree and give you all the inside knowledge of the Gooree - Written By filly we are offering our owners this week.

Click here to watch the video preview.



The success of the Gai and Gooree combination is proven at the highest level at scale and over time. We think this Written By filly can add to our story together.

For more information on the Written By x Nais Ko filly please contact our Sales team:

Yours gratefully.

Gai & Adrian

P.S. A special thank you to the Cojuangco family and Andrew Baddock (Stud Manager at Gooree from 1985 - 2021) for their assistance in putting this together including all the stats and stories behind the horses and the people