Twelve months is an eternity in racing.
This time last year, the prospect of Sword In Stone running in the G2 Auckland Cup (3200m) for trainer Stephen Gray would have been fanciful, let alone at a race meeting – New Zealand Champions Day – that didn’t even exist.
Sword In Stone, then named Columbus County, was deep into his fifth season of racing in Hong Kong with his rating slipping to its lowest level. Trained by Caspar Fownes, the Group 1 placegetter would have only one more start – a 10th at his sole Class 3 outing – before the curtain fell on his Hong Kong career.
Gray too was coming to the end of his time in Asia, although it perhaps arrived sooner than anticipated. He announced his departure from Singapore, his home for almost 25 years, in early April ahead of the closure of racing in the city-state in October.
“I was the last of the originals to leave Singapore,” Gray told Idol Horse. “So many of the trainers and the staff who were there have left the industry, it’s very sad. I’ve been lucky though in that I’ve been able to give it a crack back here and the support has been terrific and it seems to be the right time to be here in New Zealand.
“I’m working harder than I have in a long time but it’s paying off and I have new challenges and new ambitions. I want to get a Group 1 winner in New Zealand and a Group 1 winner in Australia and then I’ll be fulfilled.”
While Gray is focused on the future and the positive signs coming out of New Zealand, he is still bitterly disappointed at the way in which the industry was allowed to die off in Singapore.
“I’m probably still getting over it,” he said. “They broke a lot of hearts and there was no heart or no feeling put into it by the people that made those decisions. The industry could have been massive, it could have worked with Hong Kong and been the best in the world.
“Three years before the pandemic, it started to go bad. You could sense they didn’t want to do anything and then the pandemic hit and they reduced it massively, quite a few people got out. But what was sadder was they told us once Covid was over that it’s definitely going to keep going so everyone started investing again, including myself. I brought 10 new horses over just before they announced they were going to shut it down.
“We did everything to help the Singapore Turf Club get out of debt after Covid, we stuck in there because we wanted to support the industry. Our owners were the ones that stuck in and supported us and we all supported the Club, but management and the government had decided that racing was not in their interests and they’ve wasted what could have been something great.
“I miss Singapore for what it was, the lifestyle and all that, but at the end it was horrible to be there. It broke my heart to see the way they drove it into the ground and the way they treated people. I realised it’s not a place you want to be anymore, so it was time to leave.”
Gray, now back training in partnership with his Group 1-winning father Kevin at their 140-acre property in Awahuri on the outskirts of Palmerston North, is buoyant about the opportunities now available in New Zealand.
“We have 40 boxes and we’re close to full, we’ve had plenty of horses offered to us too which is great,” he said. “I was very lucky in that I saw Singapore at its peak and it feels like I’ve come back at a time when New Zealand is about to reach new heights too. I left when I was 35 because I couldn’t see any future here but there has been massive change recently and there is plenty of positivity around.
“Champions Day is an example of where things are at. People are talking about New Zealand again, people are interested and investment brings investment. No longer are you buying horses at the sales just to sell to Asia or Australia – you can buy horses from New Zealand and race them here with confidence.”
Gray has four horses in his stable that came back with him from Singapore, including 2021 Derby winner Hard Too Think, but it is another ex-Asian resident that could potentially deliver the stable with its biggest result.
Sword In Stone was bought as a yearling by Gray for $33,000 and was initially touted as a potential Singapore Derby candidate. Put into training with Lauren Brennan, he finished third in the 2019 Waikato Guineas and was soon bought by Fownes to target the Hong Kong Derby instead.
“He made it to the Hong Kong Derby but while he didn’t win that, he performed really well in some top races,” Gray said.
Among those efforts were placings in Hong Kong’s two Group 1 races at 2400m, the Hong Kong Vase and the Champions & Chater Cup, while he finished within three lengths of Romantic Warrior in the G1 QEII Cup (2000m) in 2022.
When his form dipped, he was sent back to New Zealand, arriving not long after Gray himself had returned. He decided to give him one final campaign which began with a shock victory over 1600m at Otaki on Boxing Day.
“After that, the Auckland Cup was on the back of my mind but a meeting was called off which meant he missed a run,” Gray said. “I was going to pull him out but I forgot to do it. Then he won so well under a big weight last weekend that I thought, he’s in there, why not have a crack? It was either the St Leger at Trentham for $100,000 or this race for $600,000, so why not?
“You see him happy and sound in the mornings, he looks magnificent, he goes out in the paddock every day. He’s a really happy horse. As long as he gets around and pulls up sound, I’ll be happy. I think two or three years ago he’d be winning easily, but I don’t know what to expect now. Caspar always thought he would stay so I guess we’ll find out.”
Sword In Stone is not the only former Hong Kong horse competing in a World Pool race on Saturday; Meaningful Star, a four-time Happy Valley winner for Francis Lui, runs in the G1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m) for Bruce Wallace and Grant Cooksley.
“I think it will be something that we will see more in the years ahead,” Gray said. “Hong Kong horses especially, most of them are really sound and there are so many opportunities for them to race on once their careers have ended up there. Sword In Stone is a great example – and even if Saturday is his last race, he will have a great home with us when he retires.” ∎
