{"id":120075,"date":"2025-09-07T04:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T04:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120075\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T04:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T04:31:11","slug":"eureka-star-bay-of-biscay-eyes-leap-to-fame-in-victoria-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120075\/","title":{"rendered":"Eureka star Bay Of Biscay eyes Leap To Fame in Victoria Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo:Photo: Club Menangle (PacePix)<\/p>\n

Young star Bay Of Biscay may have booked himself a ticket to take on Australasia\u2019s champion pacer Leap To Fame after an historic win in the world\u2019s richest race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, at Menangle last night (Saturday).<\/p>\n

Talks between trainers Emma Stewart, Clayton Tonkin and the owners in coming days will decide if the pair will clash for the first time in the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton on October 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense as the next step, but, like everything with this horse, we\u2019ll leave the decision to Emma and Clayton,\u201d managing part-owner Tim Bunning said.<\/p>\n

Bay Of Biscay became the first pacer to tackle the TAB Eureka twice, atoning for a luckless second to Don Hugo last year with a dominant front-running win last night\/<\/p>\n

It capped 12 months of meticulous planning and some major sacrifices from connections.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe had a ticket into the Miracle Mile in March and turned it down. That was purely a decision by Emma and Clayton, who were only looking at one race \u2026 coming back to win the TAB Eureka,\u201d part-owner Brett Coffey said.<\/p>\n

Just two months ago, Stewart and Tonkin aborted a trip to Brisbane for the $350,000 Group 1 Rising Sun because they couldn\u2019t get a suitable flight and felt a gruelling road trip could hinder Bay of Biscay\u2019s TAB Eureka campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve basically kept him in cotton wool for a long time now with this race in mind, but he\u2019s a big strong bull (stallion) and almost five now, the next step is into the big Grand Circuit races,\u201d\u00a0Bunning said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously another big step up to take on one of the greatest (pacers) of all time in Leap To Fame, but we have to do it some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Victoria Cup start would almost certainly see a driver change with Bay Of Biscay\u2019s regular driver Cam Hart also the resident reinsman for defending champion and two-time NZ Cup winner Swayzee.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay Of Biscay\u2019s breeder and part-owner, Alan Galloway, the principal of Alabar Farms, is already looking beyond the stallion\u2019s racing days.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s super-hot property as a stallion now,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d whip him back home now and collect (semen) from him if I had my way, but I understand the others will want to race him on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to stand him at Alabar if the other owners agree and when it\u2019s the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galloway was like a proud father, having hunted down Bay Of Biscay\u2019s mother, former star pacing mare Nike Franco, in the US after she retired from racing (with 32 wins and $913,870) and buying her to bring back to Australia and breed from.<\/p>\n

Bay Of Biscay is her foal and only one to race. He sold for a then equal sale-topping $150,000 at the 2022 Nutrien Sydney Yearling Sale.<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s dominance across the first three runnings of the TAB Eureka has been remarkable.<\/p>\n

She won the inaugural 2023 race with Encipher, finished second (Bay Of Biscay) and third (High Above) last year and then had a record four runners in last night\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Along with Bay Of Biscay winning, Stewart had second (Fox Dan), fourth (Go Miki) and fifth (Miki To Success).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love this race. Winning the first one with Encipher was amazing, but coming back with this guy and going one better after his second last year, and the fact he\u2019s such a special horse to us, tops everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd, the atmosphere \u2026 what an incredible night it is. And even better when you win it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Club Menangle (PacePix) Young star Bay Of Biscay may have booked himself a ticket to take on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-120075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}