By Jack McInerney –
It was a cold and dreary Friday, 10th March 2017 and a horse debuted at the iconic Chantilly Racecourse in Northern France. The meeting was run on the synthetic track and its the 4th placegetter in the 3 year old Maiden, Avilius, which would go on to make his mark in Australia, once touted by some as the horse that could beat Winx!
He stood out a month later on 9th April 2017 and won his maiden comfortably by 2 Lengths when $2.20 favourite. He went on to have 5 more runs in France under the tutelage of World renowned trainer Andre Faber where he fell in at his third start to win the Listed DU SURESNES STAKES and ran placings in 3 Group2 races, most notably running second to international superstar CRACKSMAN with the former Waller stayer FINCHE running third. He was subsequently purchased by Godolphin and transferred to Australia to continue his racing career.
He arrived with a bang winning a BM91 (Ridden by Glyn Schofield) and three Group 3 Races in a row at his first four starts in Australia. At just his 5th start in Australia he lined up in Winx’s record breaking 4th Cox Plate where he jumped a $31 pop and ran fourth. He then went on to line up in the 2018 Melbourne Cup where he faced the gruelling 3200 metre journey for the first time and its safe to say he didn’t handle it running just under 70 lengths off the winner CROSS COUNTER, finishing 22nd of 24 runners.
Upon returning back from the paddock after his failure in the Melbourne Cup he won 4 of his next 5 runs which netted him a Group 3, a Group 2 and two Group 1 wins. An interesting fact about the horse is he finished his career with 2 wins from 2 runs on Heavy tracks, which were both Group 1 wins in The Ranvet and The Tancred.
He went on to always be somewhat competitive at the top level but he never reached the heights that he did in those first two preps in Australia. As a matter of fact his last win in Australia was way back on 21st September 2019 when he won the George Main Stakes. From that point on I think he just enjoyed going around with the pack because he ran 5th five times and 6th three times. His enigmatic career came to an end recently when he bled after his 6th placing in the Doomben Cup with Godolphin opting to retire him and make him the flag bearer for their Lifetime Care Program, and rightly so, he was a multiple Group1 winner who at one stage in his career could call himself a part of the highest echelon of Racing.
He was hard to figure out as he got older and undeniably became a costly conveyance to back and follow but you would go a long way to find a better looking horse in the yard when he was at his top.
He was a horse that people either loved or hated and I have to say I loved but him but I sent an article about his retirement this morning to a mate of mine and he responded with “maybe they can train him to catch mice”. Long Live Avilius.
Yeah The Punt 