Fierce Impact’s original owners must have mixed feelings about the stallion’s slashing Group 1 Australian treble - Toorak Hcp, Cantala Stakes and Saturday’s Makybe Diva Stakes. Despite the fact that all three wins were achieved at 1600m, Fierce Impact’s Sydney based trainer Matthew Smith remains confident he’ll be equally effective at 2000m.
The story goes that the people who paid $700,000 US for Fierce Impact at the 2014 Japan Racing Horse Association foal sale, expected him to get a good bit further than 2000m. In fact they were looking for a subsequent English Derby contender. They identified a colt by the former champion racehorse Deep Impact a winner up to 3200m, out of Keiai Gerbera. His dam sire was the celebrated Smarty Jones who had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes of 2004 before finishing second in the Belmont.
The colt was later sent to the Newmarket stables of successful trainer David Simcock and treated like a stayer from the beginning of his seven start British racing career. He scored his sole win first up in 2YO Maiden company over 1600m at Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. Later he finished second in a listed event over 2253m at Goodwood and was a well beaten third in a restricted race over 2000m at Epsom. Derby plans were aborted, and Fierce Impact was catalogued for the 2017 Tattersall’s Autumn Horses in Training Sale.
“I was alerted to his impending sale by agent Avo Damirdjian of Tried And True Bloodstock, and I was more than interested,” recalled Matthew Smith. “Deep Impact hadn’t had many Australian runners at the time but Tosen Stardom and Real Impact had both won Gr 1 races while Fierce Impact’s dam had won at stakes level. When he passed his veterinary inspection with flying colours we elected to have a crack and got him for the equivalent of $200,000 AUD.”
Mathew and his wife Melissa retained a portion, while shares were purchased by Seymour Bloodstock (Darren Thomas), Dennis Racing (Dennis Yopp), Australian Racehorse Breeding (Mark Pilkington) Nick Sheehan, and Frank and Christine Cook whose well known colours are sported by Fierce Impact. The stallion’s current prize money tally of almost $3.2 million completes one of racing’s recent fairy tale stories.
“He’ll continue to do a nice job up to 2000m but simply can’t stay beyond that trip,” said Matt. “He’ll run in either the Turnbull or Caulfield Stakes on his way to the 2040m of the W.S. Cox Plate. We had a fitness edge on Russian Camelot in the Makybe Diva and obviously enjoyed a much better trip than he got, but our bloke was very focused and very determined. We’re thrilled with him.”
Fierce Impact wins his 3rd Aussie Gr 1 - All in Melbourne and all at a mile - courtesy Racing Photos.
Matthew’s patience, and his understanding of the northern hemisphere thoroughbred horse have played a major role in his management of Fierce Impact. In twenty Australian starts the son of Deep Impact has recorded five wins and nine placings. His brilliant Group 1 treble has been complimented by three Gr 1 placings, and a Gr 3 Summer Cup win in 2018.
The trainer still rues his decision to run the horse in the $5 million All Stars Mile earlier this year. “He’d already been placed in the 1400m C.F. Orr and the 1600m Chipping Norton Stakes and was technically looking for a longer trip,” said Matt. “We got a wildcard invitation into the All Stars and it was hard to dismiss that kind of prize money. He raced well to beat all but the placegetters but lacked his usual zip on the day.”
There are few better stories among the Sydney training ranks than Matthew Smith. Despite a fascination with thoroughbreds from an early age, he was slow to get off the mark as a potential trainer. His first positive move was to arrange a month’s work experience with respected Flemington trainer John Sadler. Matt was twenty six years old when he took himself off to England to see how they did it on the other side of the world. He’d been told the best way to guarantee a job in a British training establishment was to “ride out”, or to ride trackwork as we say in Australia. The brutal truth was that the young Aussie had never sat on a horse.
Matthew Smith learned his trade from masters like Aidan O'Brien and Niall O' Callaghan. Saturday's win was Matt's fourth Gr 1 in his own right - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Undaunted, he enlisted the aid of a talented equestrienne called Maggie Cox in county Essex - a fine exponent of the dressage and eventing disciplines and a respected riding instructor. Within a couple of months Maggie had young Smith riding more than capably and gaining in confidence. “I was confident enough to take myself off to Ireland where I landed a job with a great National Hunt trainer called Pat O’Donnell,” he said. “A few more months and I started to look at broader horizons.”
The next chapter in Matthew’s life determined once and for all, his resolve to become a horse trainer. He turned up at John Magnier’s famous Ballydoyle training complex in Tipperary, not long after Aidan O’Brien had quit his career as a National Hunt trainer and rider, to become Coolmore’s head trainer. Aidan despatched Matthew to a breaking in establishment run by his brother in law, where the Australian assisted in the education of 50 - 60 yearlings over the next few months. “It was a tremendous working experience and a very valuable part of my education,” reflected Matt.
Back to Ballydoyle went the enthusiastic Smith, destined to spend the next two years working alongside the man who has changed the face of European racing. All he needed to do in those two years was to look, listen, observe and ask the odd question to learn something from O’Brien and his team of great Irish horsemen.
Matthew with Aidan O'Brien at the Curragh in 1996. The youngster in Aidan's arms is Joseph, who later rode an English Derby winner and has already won a Melbourne Cup as the trainer of Rekindling 2017.
A reference from Ballydoyle was all Matthew required to land a job with Irish born Niall O’Callaghan who trained successfully in the USA for many years. O’Callaghan had a very big team in work at Churchill Downs when Matthew arrived in Kentucky. “Again it was just a matter of paying attention,” said Matt. “He was a gifted horseman and thoroughly professional.”
Matthew’s overseas experience all but guaranteed him a job when he arrived back in Australia, but he wasn’t expecting the one he got. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I walked straight into a foreman’s role at Leilani Lodge under the tutelage of Bart Cummings,” he said. “I spent five happy years with the maestro, who didn’t offer too much consultation but was happy to answer questions if you could pin him down for a while.”
Finally the day arrived for the well prepared Smith to bite the bullet and offer his services as a professional horse trainer. He set up shop at Warwick Farm where he and Melissa have developed a thoroughly professional operation currently housing 45 horses. Melissa’s background has given her a flying start as the wife of a successful racehorse trainer. She competed at the highest level as a teenage rider and later formed an attachment to thoroughbreds when she rode extensive trackwork in Japan. Little did she realise a foal born in that country, would one day enhance the career of her future husband.
Matt's wife Melissa was a Sydney Royal winner as a teenager and later rode trackwork in Japan. They are a great team!
In winning Saturday’s Makybe Diva Stakes, Fierce Impact gave Matthew his fourth Gr 1 success. Interesting to note that his first at the elite level was also in Melbourne with Hurtle Myrtle in the Myer Classic of 2011. The win constituted a sizeable proportion of the mare’s $800,000 prize money haul.
Matthew had high hopes for a colt called Krupt in 2008. He won the Gr 2 Todman Stakes and looked real Slipper material but went amiss shortly after and had to be retired. Zin Zan Eddie was a stable favourite winning five races with eleven placings for $482,000.
Combat Kitty was a $150,000 yearling purchase who went on to win $445,000. She ran second to Karuta Queen in the Magic Millions Classic and won a listed race over the 2011 Melbourne Cup carnival - the year of Hurtle Myrtle.
Cabernet notched six wins and six placings for $363,000 and won a listed race at Sandown. Faraway Town did a wonderful job for connections with three wins and seven placings for well over half a million dollars. She was placed in a Sires Produce and a Champagne Stakes, and won the Gr 3 Triscay Stakes. Others to contribute to the stable strike rate on metropolitan tracks are Aqua D’Ivina, Grey Lion, Ilwendo, Rebel Miss, Sweet Thomas and Palazzo Pubblico.
Matt's first Gr 1 winner! Hurtle Myrtle and Damien Oliver were first home in the 2011 Myer Classic.
Matthew is extremely fond of a certain So You Think mare he has in the stable currently. Nimalee has had only seven starts for four wins (three on city tracks) and two seconds. The trainer is hoping she’ll improve on her winning tally when she lines up in a BM88 at Randwick on Saturday.
One hundred and nine horses paid up when first acceptances were declared for the 100th W.S. Cox Plate including thirty seven Group 1 winners. At this stage nobody knows how many people will be accredited to attend the Manikato Stakes meeting on the Friday night or the WFA championship on Saturday October 24th.
Racing has been throwing up unlikely stories for centuries, but a Cox Plate win by Fierce Impact would be at the top of the list. Here is a horse bred and sold as a foal in Japan, purchased specifically to be set for an English Derby. He finishes up in a tried horse sale in England, where he’s purchased by southern hemisphere buyers. He finds his way to Australia where he wins three high profile Group 1 races at a mile - it’s fairy tale stuff.
His trainer and part owner didn’t make it to Flemington last Saturday, but was cheering loudly at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney. The stallion was saddled up by his regular strapper Nicky Hunt who had left Warwick Farm with him on Thursday night. Wild horses wouldn’t keep Matt away from Moonee Valley on October 24th.
The W.S. Cox Plate first run in 1922 is a comparative newcomer alongside a race like the ATC St Leger which was first run in 1841. But in under a century the great weight for age event has become a magnet for champions, and a true barometer of equine greatness.
Who will ever forget the television shots of young Sydney trainer Richard Litt immediately after his three year old Castelvecchio had run second to the Japanese raider Lys Gracieux last year. For one wild moment on the hometurn Richard dared to think he was the trainer of the Cox Plate winner.
Another Warwick Farm trainer will be at Moonee Valley next month hoping he might be lucky enough to feel the same buzz. Matthew Smith will be desperately hoping Japan can make it a back to back double!
A proud moment for regular strapper Nicky Hunt who travelled to Melbourne with Fierce Impact last Thursday night - courtesy Racing Photos.
(Banner image - Mark Zahra wins the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on Fierce Impact 12/09/2020 - courtesy Racing Photos.)