News

Easter colt Odinson wins Nursery, targets Millennium next

9th Dec 2023

Quality colt Odinson (Night Of Thunder) will target the $2m Inglis Millennium in February following a spectacular come-from-behind victory in today’s Listed Inglis Nursery at Randwick.

Trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace – who purchased the colt from Widden Stud at this year’s Easter Yearling Sale for $320,000 – Odinson was having just his second career start today, having finished a close-up 3^rd on debut in the G3 Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.

After drawing the outside gate of barrier 15 in today’s $500,000 feature, jockey Tyler Schiller had little option but to go back but it didn’t stop him coming the widest in the home straight to produce a long surging run to hit the front near the post.

Odinson (pictured) edged out Inglis Classic and Inglis Ready2Race Sale graduate Beer Baron for Neil Osborne, with Stephen O’Halloran’s $30,000 Classic Sale filly Nymphadora in third place.

Bred by David Redvers’ Qatar Bloodstock, Odinson is raced by a large syndicate of owners including John O’Neill and Ozzie Kheir, whose colours he races in.

While Kheir and O’Neill watched on from afar today, fellow part owner Barry O’Brien was trackside and was thrilled with the result.

“He’s a very good colt this, we knew before his debut he was good and he ran a huge race and to come out today and do what he did, to get back and have to come seven and eight wide and still win, it’s very hard to do,’’ O’Brien said.

“We targeted this race because the money involved in the Inglis Race Series is just too good to refuse. And as a result of that, we’ll give the horse a freshen up now and come back here and target the $2m Inglis Millennium in February on our way to the Slipper.’’

Widden’s Antony Thompson added: “He ran huge on debut and it was great to see him come out and do what he did today.

“David Redvers bred the colt and it’s a big result for Qatar as well, let’s hope he can go on and win plenty more of the big 2YO races and beyond.

“It’s been a great Spring for Widden, with Griff winning the Caulfield Guineas out of our first ever Widden Victoria draft at Melbourne Premier and we’ve got some beautiful horses to offer through Inglis again in 2024 starting with Classic which is full of quality and has something for everybody.’’

Maher and Eustace received a pair of Swarovski Optik binoculars for being the winning trainers of an Inglis Race Series Event and they also hit the lead in the Inglis Race Series Theault Trainers’ Challenge.

Odinson wasn’t the only ‘winner’ in today’s Nursery.

The connections of runner up Beer Baron won the $200,000 Inglis Pink Bonus for being the first eligible Pink Bonus runner home, which on top of their second-place prizemoney saw connections – trainer Neil Osborne, his wife Denise and their two sons Stuart and Peter - take home $294,000.

“What a huge thrill, the Inglis Pink Bonus is phenomenal,’’ Denise Osborne, who owns 75% of Beer Baron, said.

“This is the first horse we’ve signed up to the Pink Bonus but when I decided to take majority ownership it was a no brainer because it’s such a great concept and such amazing money.’’

The third horse home in the Nursery, Nymphadora, was also a Pink Bonus horse, coming from close to last to produce an enormous run.

The Inglis Pink Bonus is the most lucrative women’s incentive in world racing.