It’s hard to comprehend how so many people had the chance to own and race the outstanding four-year-old Mongolian Khan yet let the opportunity slip away.
Coolmore Stud, cashed up Hong Kong investors and not the least being his own Tasmanian breeder Graeme McCulloch had all, at one time or another, owned Mongolian Khan before he started his racing career.
McCulloch, a four-time Tasmanian champion trainer, bred and raised Mongolian Khan at his Grenville Stud at Whitemore that has been his home for 35 years. The son of Holy Roman Emperor was born in the spring of 2011 as the result of a foal sharing arrangement between McCulloch and Coolmore Stud.
The partnership was short-lived as the colt was offered for sale as a weanling at a winter sale in Melbourne in 2012 when Coolmore wanted out of the youngster.
He made only $9000 – but it was a buy back, the successful bidder being a shrewd McCulloch who had seen enough in the colt not to let him go for such a cheap price.
However McCulloch had bought out Coolmore’s share in the horse for purely commercial reasons. He shipped the colt to New Zealand’s Ainsley Downs Stud where another share deal saw that stud prepare him for a second sale ring appearance at the 2013 NZ National Yearling sale at Karaka.
This time McCuloch made a killing as the colt made $NZ140,000, purchased by Bryce Tankard’s Waikato Bloodstock as agent for Hong Kong clients.
However in yet another twist to the Mongolian Khan story, the Hong Kong buyer rejected the purchase.
As a result of his Hong Kong rejection the yet to be named youngster returned to the sale ring for a third time, this time as a well-developed 2YO at the 2013 NZB Ready To Run Sale at Karaka.
This time he was a colt in demand, selling for the sale topping price of $NZ220,000 to his current owner Lang Lin, a then little-known Manchurian fast-food billionaire who had dreamed for years of racing horses in Australia’s best races.
Known to his staff and his many racing contacts as ‘Mr Wolf’ – Lang keeps pet wolves in a private zoo in his homeland – the mega rich entrepreneur is also helping to establish a successful racing and breeding industry in China and his native Manchuria. He is the founder and CEO of Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry Group and has spent millions buying some 800 horses at New Zealand sales for export to China over the last three years.
Cambridge trainer Graeme Forbes, retained as bloodstock adviser and buyer for Lang, predicts his employer will be buying as many again in the next 18 months.
However Mongolian Khan was never going to be one of his exports, being identified from the time he breezed before the Ready To Run sale as the horse that could fulfil Lang’s cherished dream of owning a Melbourne Cup runner.
With noted big race specialist Murray Baker selected as his trainer, the perfectly named Mongolian Khan has netted Lang three G1 wins in the Caulfield Cup, NZ Derby and ATC Derby and more than $3.8 million prizemoney – a long way from the time when Graeme McCulloch retained him as a weanling for $9000.
Yet McCulloch is still a part of the Mongolian Khan story, having forged a friendships with Lang Lin to the extent that he was a guest of the Manchurian mogul at Caulfield on Saturday – and not for the first time.
McCulloch travelled to New Zealand to see the colt he bred from his broodmare Centafit win the New Zealand Derby.
He was also in Sydney when Mongolian Khan became the first three-year-old since the great Bonecrusher in 1986 to complete the trans-Tasman classic double in the Australian Derby at Randwick.
“They said I had to come to Caulfield because they believe I am his Group One good luck charm,” McCulloch said of his friendship with Lang and his entourage.
“This is an unbelievable moment in my racing life because everyone who breeds thoroughbreds hopes one day to produce one good enough to win a Group 1 and this horse has won three.
“This is great for Grenville Stud but even greater for Tasmanian thoroughbred breeding because this is absolute proof that we can achieve these results.”
Mongolian Khan, having surpassed former G1 star Alfa as the best horse bred by McCulloch at Grenville Stud, is the first Australian Derby winner to win the Caulfield Cup the following season since Sky Heights in 1999.
The first Tasmanian-bred horse to win the Caulfield Cup since Sydeston in 1990, Mongolian Khan was bred by McCulloch from Centafit, an unraced Centaine mare he bought privately from a stud client for $13,000 in 2004.
She had previously been acquired from a Lindsay Park Stud dispersal sale after producing the G1 Wellington Cup winner Young Centair (Jeune).
Centafit is a sister to the Hong Kong Derby winner Centalong (Centaine), who raced under the name Super Fit in Hong Kong. She is also a three-quarter sister Regal Cent (Centaine), dam of the G1 Avondale Cup winner Regal Krona (Krona).
Centafit missed for two seasons after producing Mongolian Khan but has a yearling colt by Magnus and was covered by young Northern Meteor stallion Fighting Sun last December.
Centafit is from the non-winning mare Galopede, a daughter of Three Legs.
Mongolian Khan is one of six G1 winners by Holy Roman Emperor, a son of Danehill from the family of champion Australian sires Flying Spur and Encosta de Lago.
It remains to be seen if Coolmore attempts to buy back into Mongolian Khan as a stud prospect, given his pedigree and the revival Holy Roman Emperor is enjoying with his progeny in Australasia.
