It might go down as the best advice Natalie Young has given to her long-time partner Trent Busuttin in their already fruitful training careers: “You let me buy the ones I really love, so just buy it”.
Busuttin did not need to be told twice. He splashed out $70,000 for a yearling at the 2024 Karaka Sales in New Zealand after it had been passed in at auction, and they are glad he did.
Now known as Blind Raise, the three-year-old gelding lines up as second favourite in Saturday’s $3 million group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600 metres), having won four of its five races and $435,000 in prizemoney. First place is worth $1.8 million.
Both New Zealanders, Young and Busuttin met while working in Singapore during the 1990s and have trained out of Cranbourne since 2016 after they crossed the Tasman Sea with two children under six – Ben and Zara – a nanny, 22 horses and two huskies.
On Saturday, they will be aiming to win their ninth group 1 with Blind Raise.
“We are kind of our own blood stock agents,” Young told The Age. “Obviously, it’s our own business, so we get out there, and I love that side of it, the yearling side of it.
“There’ll be ones that I’ll absolutely love that I’ll have to have, and there’s some that Trent does as well.
“Trent really loved it [Blind Raise]. I couldn’t find any faults with it. It was correct in confirmation, and it just looked a bit raw and a bit gangly, and, you know, you have just got to go, ‘Well, just buy it, you know. If you love it that much, buy it.’
“Because sometimes as trainers you follow the ones that you missed out on, which you shouldn’t do, and they end up being good horses when you’re the under bidder. So, sometimes you have just got to go, ‘take a punt’.”
Since their bargain buy, the horse has not looked back, even though the training partners had to do a U-turn earlier this week.
Popular in racing circles and among racegoers, Busuttin and Young were driving to Caulfield Racecourse from their Cranbourne base on Tuesday morning as special guests for the Guineas’ barrier draw, but were stopped in their tracks because a dramatic police pursuit brought traffic to a standstill on the Monash Freeway.
“We were literally 20 minutes away, but we were never going to make it,” Young said.
She does not expect any such problems getting Blind Raise to the track on Saturday morning, but in a quirk of fate, they will also be transporting Guineas favourite Warwoven to Caulfield in the same float. The Sydney colt has been based at their stables this week because he is trained by good friend and former Kiwi Bjorn Baker.
“We always help Bjorn out. Him and Trent have been mates since the Central District days as kids [in New Zealand],” Young said.
“In this game, in racing, you’ve got to help each other out when you can, so when we have horses go up to Sydney, they go to his stable and vice versa. It’s good to have that option. You know, they’re in great hands, and it’s good to help out a mate.”
But surely they don’t want Warwoven, a last-start winner of the 1400m group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill, to be too comfortable in his Victorian surrounds, even if Baker is a mate?
“I was joking with him [Baker] that I was going to bring it [his colt] down and put a filly next door to it, just to stir him up,” Young laughed.
“But, look, if we don’t win it, we want Bjorn to.”
Young said they would consider pushing on to the Cox Plate with Blind Raise if he could finish top two in the Guineas, as he was by VRC Derby winner Aces High and should be suited stretching out to 2040m. They have never had a Cox Plate runner before.
The trainer also acknowledged their association with jockey Blake Shinn, who will take the ride in the Guineas.
“We’ve always had a lot of time for Blake, and he’s back, and he’s hungry. He had a bit of time off with his injury [suffering a broken leg in a race fall on Melbourne Cup day last year], and it’s just good to see him back winning races,” Young said.
“He’s lovely and patient, he’s kind, he sits and doesn’t take off too soon, and he just gels with Blind Raise. He trusts the horse.”
Moonee Valley hits back at concerns, declares racing will return by grand final eve
Moonee Valley Racing Club has drawn a defiant line in the sand by declaring it will be hosting next year’s Cox Plate despite industry concerns the boutique venue’s $250 million mega rebuild would not be ready in time.
The club opened its track renovations to the media for the first time on Tuesday, less than three weeks out from this year’s unique staging of the club’s premier race, which will be run at Flemington for the first time while the Valley undergoes its 21-month extreme makeover.
In the face of speculation that the project had hit financial headwinds, Valley CEO Michael Browell said new turf would be laid before Christmas and they would be ready to return to racing for the group 1 Manikato Stakes meeting next year on the eve of the AFL grand final.
The Age reported last month that Racing Victoria had threatened to withhold the Cox Plate and industry prizemoney if Moonee Valley’s rebuild did not meet expectations or industry standards for racing at the elite level.
The demands included the ability for the tight-turning circuit to host 15,000 spectators without a grandstand, as well as offering a group 1-standard track and suitable race day facilities, such as new jockey rooms and a meeting place for trainers.
RV’s shock return-to-racing guidelines came just two months after the Valley board had rejected a one-sided merger proposal from the Melbourne Racing Club, put forward by MRC vice-chairman Jonathan Munz, which would have required the inner northern suburbs venue to close down for good.
Another recent area of concern for the Moonee Valley leadership, as revealed in The Age on Thursday, was a proposed amendment to government legislation that would have allowed a six-person racing panel to decide if one of the three Melbourne metropolitan clubs should be placed under Racing Victoria’s control if they were shown to be acting to the detriment of racing or wasting too much money.
The proposed amendment, which never came to pass, was emailed to Racing Minister Anthony Carbines’ office by Munz in July and was outlined in advice that prominent silk Peter Hanks KC had provided to the MRC.
While Browell did not publicly discuss outside pressures at Tuesday’s Cox Plate launch, he said Moonee Valley would “one hundred per cent” be hosting the country’s best weight-for-age horse race in 2027.
If right, one of the crown jewels of Australian racing will return to a track of vastly different dimensions after the old course was completely demolished – a process that began when punters enthusiastically began tearing the venue to pieces after the 2025 Cox Plate.
The new track has been moved closer to the CityLink Freeway and further from Wilson Street primary school, and includes a home straight that will be 144m longer (stretching from 173m to 307m) and run east to west, rather than north to south.
The Cox Plate will also return to a venue that is temporarily without a new grandstand – the old ones were bulldozed to make way for new apartment buildings that are allowing Moonee Valley to self-fund the extensive project.
“When we finish this next apartment building [in 2029], we can move into construction of the event centre [grandstand],” Browell said.
“Over 10,000 square metres, it’ll accommodate 5000-6000 people on race day, set over 3½ levels, connecting with the tunnel that brings you in from the infield [car park].”
In the meantime, Browell said the club would accommodate Cox Plate crowds with the type of temporary infrastructure used at the Australian Open, Flemington’s Birdcage precinct or at Albert Park during the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
He said race day facilities – such as the mounting yard, tie-up stalls, stewards offices and trainer and jockey rooms – would be completed in time for their return to racing.
“We’re actually paying for this ourselves, believe it or not,” Browell said.
“We’re not a government project. We’re not a Big Build project. We’re the majority shareholder in one of the biggest residential developments in the country, Moonee Valley Park. All up, there’ll be $4 billion worth of apartments built on this site, and we’re taking the majority of the profits through that.”
The Valley races 23 times a year, but Browell said the club would create infield sporting or leisure facilities, which have yet to be determined, to be accessible to the local community all-year round.
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