War Machine triumphs in Stradbroke, boosts Wallace family legacy

War Machine produces a commanding performance to claim the Group One Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm. Photo / Grant Peters

With a powerful and poignant performance in Saturday’s The Star Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm, budding superstar War Machine added extra Group One sparkle to the legacies of two much-missed New Zealand industry figures.

The triumph came less than a week after the sudden passing in Kentucky of internationally renowned bloodstock agent Michael Wallace, who sourced War Machine’s dam Caserta on behalf of his brother David and late wife Maddy and parents Jim and Mary Wallace.

War Machine was bred by the Wallace family’s MDJ Bloodstock and was offered by Ardsley Stud at both the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales and the Ready To Run Sale, but failed to reach his $100,000 reserve on both occasions.

War Machine went on to make the first nine appearances of his exciting career from the stable of Mike Moroney, a decorated and widely respected trainer who passed away earlier this year. The Harry Angel gelding is now trained by Ben, Will and J.D. Hayes, who were aware of the multi-faceted significance of Saturday’s win.

“We’re very proud, it was an amazing result today [Saturday],” Ben Hayes said. “The Wallace family bred this horse and is in the ownership group. They’ve had a really tough time lately and hopefully his win today will make them feel better.

“Also Mike Moroney, we’re fortunate to be able to be entrusted with this horse. He’s an amazing, exciting horse, and to be able to have a horse like this to train is just amazing. To be able to get a result like this for Will, J.D., the whole team, Mike Moroney, his family, the Wallace family – it’s really, really exciting.”

War Machine now boasts a perfect three-from-three record for the Hayes stable. He won a Benchmark 100 handicap at Caulfield on May 10, then earned clear-cut Stradbroke favouritism with an easy victory in last month’s Group 3 BRC Sprint (1350m) at Doomben. The form out of that race was boosted earlier on Saturday afternoon when the third-place-getter, the Kiwi galloper Pier, took out the Listed Wayne Wilson (1600m) by three lengths.

Sent out as a $3.20 favourite, War Machine and jockey Tim Clark sat in eighth, three wide but with cover, as Front Page and Punch Lane led the Stradbroke field up until the home turn.

Clark swooped five wide around the corner and let War Machine rip at the top of the straight. The 4-year-old produced an explosive turn of foot and burst to the front 250m from the finish.

Yellow Brick, Private Eye and Desert Lightning gave chase and ate into the margin, but War Machine was out of reach and scored by three-quarters of a length.

“Obviously I was thrilled to get on him today,” said Clark, who had his first ride on War Machine on Saturday. “He put the writing on the wall a few weeks ago and it was a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning when I got the news.

“He got away okay. He was just laying on the side of the gates a little bit, but he got away okay and it worked out pretty well from that draw.

“Myself and Ben, we spoke before the race. We just wanted to get on a three-wide line with a bit of cover. He found Transatlantic’s back, who I knew was going to take him far enough.

“He travelled so well, I probably let him loose a bit early. But this was the grand final, there’s no tomorrow, so I wasn’t going to die wondering.

“He let rip, really let rip. Maybe just wandered a little bit late. He could feel Yellow Brick coming late and sort of surged again.

“I can’t take too much credit for it. What a great job by Ben and his brothers to just have him spot-on ... I was just the lucky one to get the call-up.”

After being passed in at the Ready to Run Sale at Karaka, War Machine went into training with Jim Wallace and won his only trial at Foxton by six lengths before his private purchase by bloodstock agent Steven Pinfold.

“I spotted him at a jumpout before that Foxton trial,” Pinfold said.

“I did a lot of business with Michael Moroney over the years. I worked for Mike for a long time, including running stables in Adelaide and Melbourne for him through the halcyon days of Brew and Second Coming. He was a champion to me and a very good mate for 30-odd years. Once I saw War Machine at the jumpouts, I told Mike about him and then when he won the trial, we pounced.

“I put a lot of good clients into the horse and so did Mike, including Rupert Legh, so it’s nice to see the horse rewarding them.

“Mike said to me that War Machine might be one of the better horses he trained. Last year, when he ran in the Golden Eagle [1500m], he was just a kid running against men. He went a really good race and Mike said we will give him a crack at the Rupert Clarke [Group 1, 1400m] and then put him away for the Stradbroke. So here we are, but sadly Mike isn’t with us.

“I went to school with David Wallace. I also went to school with Andrew Williams, Adon Byron and Kieran McCaul, who are all Silverstream boys that are in War Machine.

“I have been friends with the Wallace family for 40 years and their Ardsley Stud has been one of the great thoroughbred nurseries in New Zealand. Jim Wallace actually gave me my first job when he ran the Magic Millions sales at Trentham way back in my schooling days.

“It’s a sad series of events. We would have loved David and Jim to be here with us this weekend, but unfortunately, they have had to go to America after the passing of Michael.”

With six victories and four placings from 13 starts, War Machine has amassed A$2.48 million ($2.67m) in prizemoney.

War Machine’s 2-year-old half-brother by Darci Brahma, named Vanvitelli, was also the winner of a recent trial at Waipukurau and has subsequently been sold to clients of the Hayes team.

– NZ Racing Desk