Former cricketer Simon O'Donnell and business partner Terry Henderson are making waves overseas as racehorse owners and syndicators, landing a double in England and France over the weekend to go with a feature race winner in Australia in what is surely the only such treble ever achieved by a local ownership group.
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O'Donnell, a racing broadcaster with Channel Seven, is a key stakeholder in well known Melbourne racing business OTI, along with Henderson.
The duo source horses in Europe with an eye to buying likely Melbourne Cup candidates; they came agonisingly close to winning Australia's greatest race when their game grey Bauer was beaten a short head by Bart Cummings' Viewed in 2008, the old maestro's last ever Cup winner.
And while their winners in Europe this weekend - the three-year-old filly Araaja in a 1900 metre handicap at Bordeaux in France and the four-year-old gelding Fastnet Tempest in a 1500 metre handicap at English track Chester - are not likely Cup candidates a spring tilt for one or either is definitely on the agenda.
Fastnet Tempest, a son of Australian dual-hemisphere stallion Fastnet Rock, made it two wins on the spin and three from his last five starts when he burst through late with a terrific turn of foot to win at Chester.
Henderson hopes the four-year-old will be on the plane to Australia to contest big races during the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington, with the 1600 metres Cantala Stakes (formerly the Emirates), a group 1 Handicap, and possibly the new Emirates (formerly the 2000 metres Mackinnon Stakes) a week later as targets in the spring.
Araaja is a sister to another import bought a few years ago by OTI, Tom Melbourne, who has now joined the Chris Waller stable in Sydney after beginning his Australian career with Lee Freedman.
She may now target the French Oaks, the Prix de Diane, over 2100 metres. At some stage she may race Down Under, but is not regarded as a cups type.
"Fastnet Tempest has a touch of class and he won that race really well as he only got clear late," said Henderson of the galloper who, on his penultimate start, had won a valuable 24-runner handicap down the straight 1400 metre track at Ascot.
"William Haggas [his trainer] has talked about him being an interesting runner for the Royal Hunt Cup, and it would be exciting if he could get here for the Flemington carnival as he is the sort of horse who might be able to stretch out to 2000 metres here with the tempo of our races."
The Royal Hunt Cup is one of the biggest handicaps in Europe, usually attracting a field of 30 or more down the 1600 metre straight at the Royal Ascot meeting.
The chances of Fastnet Tempest coming to Melbourne would be greatly enhanced if the Newmarket trainer decides to target another of his horses, Dal Harraild, at the Melbourne Cup later this year.
Dal Harraild won a listed race at York over the weekend over 2800 metres, scoring easily from a handy field in the style of a horse who would find no problem with the Melbourne Cup's 3200 metre distance.
Haggas' stayer has won five times in 12 starts, from distances of 2000 metres to 2800 metres and shapes as an ideal Cup sort.
Henderson and O'Donnell's third big winner of the weekend was the Darren Weir-trained Renew, who scored in the Australian Hurdle, the Sandown feature on Saturday.
