When Tasmanian Hall of Fame thoroughbred breeder Graeme McCulloch decided to sell a weanling he bred from his veteran broodmare Centafit he was hoping to turn a decent profit. The eventual sale at the New Zealand Yearling Sale resulted in a cheque for $70,000 landing in his bank account.
The horse became Mongolian Khan who was eventually re-offered at a ready-to-run sale and purchased for $220,000 by a syndicate from China.
While McCulloch has received no more injections of cash into his account from Mongolian Khan’s final sale or his efforts on the track, he has been an integral part of the ride that has so far netted three Group 1 wins with the latest arriving last Saturday in the $3 million Caulfield Cup.
McCulloch travelled to New Zealand to see Mongolian Khan win the New Zealand Derby and was also asked by the owners to head to Sydney to see the horse win the Australian Derby at Randwick.
With the owners convinced McCulloch might be the horse’s good luck charm, they insisted he head to Melbourne last Saturday to be track-side for the Caulfield Cup.
The win took Mongolian Khan’s stake earnings to just over $3.1 million and on the first Tuesday in November the four-year-old has the chance to become the first since Pharlap to win the AJC Derby-Melbourne Cup double, a feat accomplished in 1930.
Along the journey McCulloch has promoted Tasmania as a thoroughbred breeding haven, peppering all his media interviews with the benefits of buying horses bred in Tasmania.
Listen to what breeder Graeme McCulloch had to say about this latest chapter of the Mongolian Khan story.
By Peter Staples.