Horse racing: The men who just keep finding Derby winners – Mick On Monday

Wigmore won the South Australian Derby in the famous OTI Syndication colours. Photo / Atkins

One of racing’s most consistent Derby-winning machines was at it again when former Kiwi galloper Wigmore won the A$1 million South Australian Derby on Saturday.

Because while the 3-year-old may have plenty of new owners, it was the same two men whose judgment saw him end up in the Morphettville winner’s circle.

Wigmore had finished fourth in the New Zealand Derby as just a one-win horse less than two months ago and was purchased soon after by syndication company OTI Thoroughbreds.

That is the company famous for its blue, gold and white colours that started in Australia but now has horses racing all over the world and has opened a New Zealand arm to expand its business here.

While it has enjoyed all sorts of winners, OTI excels in two areas many owners dream of: winning classics and getting horses into the Melbourne Cup.

“That is the eighth Derby winner we have had,” OTI founder Terry Henderson said.

“And so many of those have been New Zealand-sourced horses, which obviously we love.”

While it is Henderson and OTI’s role to find owners for horses like Wigmore, the business in New Zealand relies predominantly on Cambridge bloodstock expert Phill Cataldo to identify horses worth purchasing, with Wigmore the latest success story for the transtasman friends.

“We are so lucky to have Phill over there,” Henderson said.

“He knows what sort of horses we like and he has a great eye for indentifying them.

“And after having worked together for so long, we know if Phill likes a horse, we should try to buy it.”

Wigmore was trained in New Zealand by Caley Myers and is by Novara Park stallion Sweynesse, who has had a huge last few months in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.

Ladies first

No female trainer had ever won the Kentucky Derby heading into the iconic contest yesterday and for much of this year’s race, that didn’t look like that was going to change.

Golden Tempo was so far back for most of the race he wasn’t even in the television shot but a remarkable surge in the last 600m saw him write a unique page in racing history for trainer Cherie DeVaux.

The 44-year-old, who only been training under her own name for eight years, is the first woman to train the winner of North America’s most famous race.

“I’m just glad I could be a representative of all women everywhere that we can do anything we set our minds to,” DeVaux said.

Golden Tempo is a son of a former superstar racehorse and two-time US Horse of the Year in Curlin.

The Derby win also capped a historic weekend for jockey Jose Ortiz, whose older brother Irad Ortiz jnr rode the second-placed Renegade in the Derby, the latter also coming from near last and looking the winner at the 100m mark, before being swamped by Golden Tempo.

It was a magical weekend for Jose Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Always A Runner on Saturday (NZT).

Young guns

Bow Echo bolted away with the English 2000 Guineas on Sunday but the real star of the show may have been the jockey aboard.

Bow Echo was ridden by Billy Loughnane, the 20-year-old Irish-born sensation who set an English record for flat wins in a season with 222 last year.

Adding to the youthful flavour of the Guineas was Bow Echo being trained by George Boughey, who at just 34 years old becomes the youngest trainer to win both the 1000 and 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

“It’s huge to win a 2000 Guineas as a Newmarket trainer, it’s kind of the pinnacle really,” Boughey said.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.