Trainer Bjorn Baker has second-hand star Robusto primed to cap a huge season for the stable and syndicators Darby Racing in a bold first-up bid to land the 1,400-meter (about seven-furlong) Stradbroke Handicap (G1) at Eagle Farm June 14.
And the 5-year-old will also have the backing of a sort of Murphy's Law of stallions, as he seeks to bring Churchill his second Australian group 1—soon after he was taken off Coolmore Stud's southern shuttle.
Robusto is a poster boy for the type of season Baker and Darby have been having. Darby bought the gelding on Inglis Digital in September for AU$160,000 after the 5-year-old had 29 starts for six wins and eight placings for Chris Waller and his breeders Ingham Racing, earning AU$415,000.
In seven starts for his new connections, Robusto has become a stakes winner by taking the 2024 The Ingham (G2), as well as running three seconds, earning AU$1.6 million.
Robusto, resuming since his second in the AU$500,000 The Lakes at Wyong's Saturday metro meeting on Jan. 11, has the modest first-up record of a win and a third in seven attempts, all with Waller. That one success came at the start of his last campaign but arrived too late to save him. He was put on Inglis Digital after just two more starts.
Since then, he's helped bolster Baker's superb CV on second-hand horses. With another in recent times being last year's Brisbane Cup (G2) winner, ex-Godolphin stayer Alegron, Baker has had 42 wins with horses from other stables from 245 starts at 17%.
And he's hoping his clean slate approach with Robusto can bring a new start in terms of the horse's first-up record, as Baker seeks back-to-back Stradbrokes following last year's victory with Stefi Magnetica.
"I can't worry about his previous first-up stats—I've never had him first-up. I only got him in the middle of a prep," Baker told ANZ Bloodstock News.
"We are mindful that we're going in first-up. But I think he's as fit as we can get him, and at the end of the day, he wasn't a stakes winner for his previous trainer, so I've got to just look at it as him being first-up, with me.
"I can only look forward and just worry about my horse. He's an Ingham winner, a group 2 and a AU$2 million race, so he deserves a crack at the Stradbroke."
Overall, Baker has only a fair career record for first-up winners, at 15.1%, when compared with his stats for second-up (16.2%), third-up (18.7%), fourth-up (17.7%) and fifth-up (15.9%).
But with the Stradbroke having long ago been identified as his target, Robusto has been prepared with two barrier trials at Rosehill Gardens and Warwick Farm last month—winning them both—and a gallop between races at his home track last June 4.
Baker is hoping Robusto proves over the odds at AU$26 in a Stradbroke dominated by red hot AU$2.80 favorite War Machine, whose Team Hayes stablemate Rise At Dawn is the only other runner in single figures, at AU$8.50.
"He's fit and well and seems really good," Baker said of Robusto. "He's had two trials, a gallop between races, numerous other gallops, and he's been working really well.
"No doubt, it's a very, very big ask and we're mindful of that—group 1s are always hard—but he looks well, he galloped really well this morning (Tuesday), and in terms of his work we're very very happy with him. ... Two trails was always the plan, and from that point of view we're happy with where we've got him."
