Unprecedented 2YO stakes double for Emirates Park

The racing and breeding operation of Emirates Park was responsible for an unprecedented double when Bodyguard (by I Am Invincible) claimed the $175,000, Listed, Darley Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) at Flemington in the style of a top-class juvenile.

A week after winning the first 2-year-old race of the 2023/24 Sydney juvenile racing season when the home-bred Manaal claimed the Group 3 Gimcrack Stakes (1000m), Emirates Park bred and sold Bodyguard proved to be a clear-cut winner of the first 2-year-old event of the current Melbourne juvenile racing season to complete a unique double.

A grandson of the farm’s 2014 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun, Bodyguard was sold at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $1.6 million and now races in the colours of an ownership group put together by James Harron and which includes Emirates Park.

Trained out of Sydney by Peter and Paul Snowden, the precocious youngster had finished runner-up to last week’s Group 3 Breeders’ Plate winner Espionage in a Randwick-Kensington barrier trial and handled the switch to the Flemington straight with aplomb, appearing the likely Maribyrnong Trial Stakes winner a long way from home.

Bodyguard always appeared to be traveling strongly behind a wall of rivals under Craig Williams before bursting through a gap between runners like a ‘seasoned pro’ to score in emphatic fashion.

Williams was full of praise for Bodyguard in his post-race interview, stating: “Very professional, which is what Peter [Snowden] said the first time he stepped into his yard and got broken in. You could see that today … he was very impressive today with the feeling he gave me. Loved his attitude, loved his ability and he’s got so much of a future.”

Williams added:  “He’s a lovely horse with great ability. Lovely colt.”

Managing part-owner James Harron remarked after the win: “It is great to see him do that today. It was a big ask. He was going to the Breeders’ Plate … [but] he just drew barrier 13 of 14 and we knew that they weren’t good barriers for that race.

“So Peter and Paul [Snowden] thought he’s got the right mind and he’s done everything right. He’s got a great constitution and if we were going to bring one here to tackle this race, he’d be the right one. Hats off to them.”

Bodyguard is the first foal of an unraced daughter of Mossfun, Emirates Park’s 2014 Golden Slipper winner. His dam, Tumooh, is a half-sister to the Group 3  ATC Festival Stakes (1500m) winner Dajraan (GB). Her second foal is a colt by Capitalist born in mid-September 2022.