\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Homebred six-year-old gelding Romeo\u2019s Choice (Choistar) will enter the humble beginnings hall of fame if he can pull off a battler\u2019s victory in Saturday\u2019s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick.<\/p>\n
The Richard Litt-trained sprinter has already been a winter revelation, winning both starts this preparation \u2013 including a fighting 0.03 length win up the inside of the straight last start in Rosehill\u2019s July Sprint (1100m).<\/p>\n
That gave him three city wins in a row, having scored at Randwick in the final start of his last campaign on February 8, and nudged his earnings to just short of $480,000, achieved through seven wins in 36 starts.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll face the sternest test of his career in the Missile, with nominations betting headed by Group winners General Salute (Russian Revolution), Private Eye (Al Maher), Encap (Capitalist) and Robusto (Churchill).<\/p>\n
But with Sydney\u2019s ongoing monsoon likely to cause severely rain-affected going, Romeo\u2019s Choice \u2013 a $15 chance in Monday\u2019s market \u2013 will be well served by his heavy track record of two wins and a third from four starts.<\/p>\n
If he can score a stakes victory at the first time of asking, and at Group 2 level no less, it will write a memorable chapter for the book of modest bloodlines.<\/p>\n
He would thus be both the sole stakes winner, and only city winner, for his little known sire Choistar (Choisir).<\/p>\n
Bred by Bowness Stud, and a $67,500 Magic Millions Gold Coast buy in 2008, Choistar was trained out of Queensland to win Randwick\u2019s Fernhill Stakes (Listed, 1600m) for two-year-olds on a Heavy 10 \u2013 his only other victory aside from a Toowoomba maiden.<\/p>\n
He ran fifth in Randwick\u2019s Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and fourth in Eagle Farm\u2019s old TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) \u2013 now the JJ Atkins \u2013 before his career was cut short after ten starts.<\/p>\n
Now 19, Choistar has stood at stud for 14 seasons and has all of 88 live foals to his name, and 42 runners. He has 18 winners, five of whom have been city placed, and one of those at least deserves a mention in Microna, who ran second no fewer than 17 times, and third on five occasions.<\/p>\n
Having stood in Queensland and the Hunter Valley through his first 10 seasons, when his service fee averaged $3,520, Choistar was purchased in 2021 \u2013 for $3,250 \u2013 by West Australian Robert Gardiner. Now 19, he\u2019s stood at Gardiner\u2019s farm at West Pinjarra, south of Perth, since then, with the stud book showing books of four, nine, 14 and seven mares in those years. He\u2019ll stand for $2,750 this year.<\/p>\n
If you look up his career top-selling yearling, the result is a filly who was passed in at $4,500 in 2020. He had three sell at the Magic Millions Perth Winter Thoroughbred Sale last year for between $1,000 and $2,500, and another one this year for the neat grand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he goes alright,\u201d says the taciturn Gardiner, who\u2019s been \u201cmessing about\u201d with breeding for some 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting on a bit, but he\u2019s never had a decent crack. He\u2019s only had a handful of foals and a handful to race. But, all stallions can get a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Romeo\u2019s Choice\u2019s dam.<\/p>\n
Romantic Zariz (Zariz) raced seven times for one win, in an Orange maiden. Her dam Romanticas (Marwina) raced once, for an 11th at Goulburn, though she did beat one home.<\/p>\n
After retiring, Romantic Zariz was bought privately by another man who dabbles in breeding, Sydney concreting business owner Sam Gallo.<\/p>\n
The road has been rocky, and, as with Choistar, sparsely populated.<\/p>\n
For her first two covers in 2013 and 2014 she slipped to Redoute\u2019s Show (Redoute\u2019s Choice) and Testa Rossa (Perugino). In 2015, Gallo sent her to Nothin\u2019 Leica Dane (Danehill), then at Jock McKay\u2019s Cangon Stud near Dungog, and she missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cJock said, \u2018I\u2019ve got this other stallion \u2013 Choistar\u2019, and I said, \u2018OK\u2019,\u201d Gallo told ANZ News. \u201cAs soon as I tried him, it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result was Lexi\u2019s Choice, who won twice, at Wyong and Newcastle, from 52 starts.<\/p>\n
Happy enough that the mating was at least productive, Gallo sent Romantic Zariz back to Choistar for her next three covers. She missed, then a filly died of snake bite soon after birth, then Romeo\u2019s Choice was born in 2019.<\/p>\n
Romantic Zariz hasn\u2019t been covered since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was waiting to see how this one turned out,\u201d said Gallo, who breeds with only one mare at a time, and races Romeo\u2019s Choice with family and friends.<\/p>\n
With that proof in the pudding, Gallo has sent the 17-year-old Romantic Zariz back to Choistar \u2013 only this time it involves a round trip of 8,000km.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wouldn\u2019t be a lot of mares coming all this way to see him,\u201d said Gardiner, probably in an understatement, possibly while dusting off some red carpet.<\/p>\n
Some funding from Romeo\u2019s Choice\u2019s racetrack deeds has doubtless made the venture more justifiable for Gallo, but all that has gone before would be comfortably eclipsed if the gelding can claim the Missile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a big party, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Gallo said.<\/p>\n
As for the chances, trainer Litt is acutely aware it\u2019s a major step up in grade, conceding the green light was also given for the set weights Missile because \u201cthere wasn\u2019t a lot else around for him in terms of benchmark races\u201d.<\/p>\n
But despite the steep rise in grade \u2013 the 96-rater carried 54 kilograms in his last\u2013start handicap success \u2013 Litt said it would be foolish to underestimate Romeo\u2019s Choice. That was evidenced all the way up the Rosehill straight last time out, when he looked no chance of winning until the last bound.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very tough. He always finds a way, as nice horses do,\u201d Litt said of Romeo\u2019s Choice, who debuted a month short of turning three.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s kept improving. He\u2019s a very big horse, and he\u2019s a very mentally strong horse, a tough bugger. He\u2019s got a big heart, and he always tries hard. I think horses keep getting better and better with age, and then they wear out eventually. I think he\u2019s in a good spot right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always been given the appropriate time to mature. His owners are very good and understanding, and being a homebred, they hold him dearly. They\u2019ve always done the right thing by him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Missile is going to be a lot stronger than his last race. There are some pretty good horses in there. But he\u2019s come through that run very well, and this falls nicely for him being three weeks later. Hopefully the track stays nice and soft for him. He really enjoys that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll have to improve, up against these horses, but he\u2019s definitely going to improve, fitness wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Litt confessed to knowing little about Choistar, but said Romeo\u2019s Choice was proof again that \u201call stallions can get a good one\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of good stallions don\u2019t get their chance,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very, very quick to judge stallions. If they haven\u2019t produced in the first couple of years, we don\u2019t want to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added Romeo\u2019s Choice\u2019s bloodlines were now as irrelevant as they were obscure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like anything in life \u2013 just because your mother can play tennis, doesn\u2019t mean you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can read a lot into pedigrees, and they\u2019re a good starting point, but at the end of the day, horses are flesh and blood; they don\u2019t know how much they cost, they don\u2019t know who they\u2019re by or who they\u2019re out of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen Homebred six-year-old gelding Romeo\u2019s Choice (Choistar) will enter the humble beginnings hall of fame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-44768","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\/44768","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=44768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}