Craig Kerry

September 25, 2026 — 5:00pm

The man who bought Warwoven is confident, from what he saw in the stallion prospect as a yearling and since, that the Bjorn Baker-trained colt will relish the 1400m of the group 1 Golden Rose on Saturday at Rosehill.

Bloodstock agent Jim Clarke, together with Baker and Ridgmont Farm, bought Warwoven for $380,000 and Paradoxium for $400,000 at the 2025 Magic Millions Yearling Sale. The pair have become “the two best colts” Clarke has secured.

Both overcame setbacks to win group races as two-year-old before wide gates thwarted their Golden Slipper chances. Paradoxium, the Todman Stakes winner, is on track to a stallion career after racing giants Yulong bought a majority share, and he has since won the group 3 Poseidon Stakes.

Warwoven will guarantee similar interest from studs if he can back up his group 2 Run To The Rose (1200m) victory in the Golden Rose, where he has drawn gate one and was $6 with TAB, behind Golden Slipper winner Guest House ($2.30) and St Gotthard ($4.20). Rachel King, who has ridden Warwoven in every trial and race, is aboard again.

Clarke, who has had group 1 success with Stefi Magnetica and Arapaho, believed Warwoven’s physique and pedigree on his dam’s side pointed to him handling the step up in trip. Warwoven is a son of Sword Of State, a Snitzel colt which won four stakes races in New Zealand at 1200m, but he is out of Needle And Thread, a Makfi mare which won over 2000m at group 2 level.

“He is probably a little bit of a combination of both his sire and his female family,” Clarke said.

“He’s probably a bigger horse that can cover a little bit more ground. Sword Of State was a neater, sharper, Aussie sprinting-style horse.

“Warwoven is a pretty big, imposing character, and his female family I guess is why we’ve got confidence sending him out to 1400.

“He’s obviously got a lot of speed, but Rachel’s always been of the view that he does have the scope to get out over a little bit more ground, at least 1400, and potentially beyond.”

While Paradoxium’s sire, Extreme Choice, remains hot property, Warwoven was part of Sword Of State’s first crop. Clarke, though, was immediately impressed by the unknown quantity.

“I remember seeing Warwoven for the first time at Kia Ora when we were doing yearlings inspections in December and I thought he was one of the best colts I’d seen,” he said.

“I’ll probably look at close to 800 or 900 horses over the course of three weeks in December and he was one of those that stuck out in my mind based on his physique.

“He is a very well-bred horse. He’s got a very strong Kiwi female family. His mother was a very good mare herself and I remember Sword Of State as a yearling several years ago at Newgate and he’s a very talented horse in his own right.

“He didn’t have a lot of yearlings selling in Australia last year, but this guy stood out. They do change as they grow. Sometimes they keep progressing physically as you expect, sometimes they don’t, but fortunately he’s one that’s furnished into a beautiful horse.

“At the time, it probably seemed like a fair bit of money for a first-season stallion standing for a comparatively low fee, but fortunately it was one we seemed to get right.

“He’s won the Pago Pago, the Run To The Rose, but capturing that group 1, certainly makes a very meaningful difference to his appeal as a stallion.

“We’ve got to get through Saturday first and foremost. He’s in good shape and he’s drawn an inside barrier for the first time in a long time.”

Paradoxium, meanwhile, is set to race in the Roman Consul Stakes at Rosehill on October 10 before targeting the group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Twenty-five years after a memorable first Melbourne group 1 win in the race, Nash Rawiller is as confident as he can be that Beiwacht will deliver him another Manikato Stakes on Sunday at Caulfield.

Rawiller took 20-1 shot Piavonic, a four-time winner at Moonee Valley, to an upset two-length victory over Sunline in the 2001 Manikato Stakes, after tracking the champion mare and $2.10 favourite into the race.

“It was my second group 1 and first in Melbourne,” said the Bendigo-raised rider.

“I thought I had a shot, and I drew bad and everything was sort against her, but she was just a freak around the Valley.

“The second horse was too, I suppose. She won two Cox Plates, but my mare just loved the Valley, and it was a bit of soft track as well.

“It was just one of those things where everything went right on the day.”

Rawiller, who has won the race since on Typhoon Zed (2008), this time rides $3.40 favourite Beiwacht in the 1200m group 1, moved to Caulfield because of redevelopments at Moonee Valley.

The combination dominated the Memsie Stakes over 1400m at the track last start in a three-length, front-running effort. The Godolphin-owned three-time group 1 winner at 1400m has been dropped back to 1200m with a slot in the $20 million The Everest the goal.

With gate three, Rawiller was confident the four-year-old stallion prospect could again take control.

“I’m on a good horse. Rapt with him,” he said.

“This gives us a bit of a guide. He’s won over 1100, but obviously seven furlongs [1400m] is his pet trip. But I think in The Everest, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a strong 1400m type horse, in a high-pressure race like that. He can soak up the pressure, he’s a real tough horse.

“I’m as confident as I can be, but like any race, things have got to go your way, but he’s a horse who really makes his own luck and he loves the track, which is a big plus.”

On Saturday at Rosehill, Rawiller chase a group 1 boilover with Michael Freedman-trained Berzelius ($61) in the Golden Rose. Berzelius won the BRC Sires’ Produce at 1400m in the winter and has finished sixth and eight this time in the San Domenico (1100m) and Run To The Rose (1200m) respectively in races dominated by on-pace runners.

“You’d like to think going into the grand final, there will be a bit more pressure, and I think he’s really flying under the radar,” Rawiller said.

“He’s a horse I’ve got a lot of time for and I don’t think he should be the odds he is.

“After that last race, I rang Michael and said I might come have a couple more sits on him, and he’s a really high-class horse. He just hasn’t had the chance to show it this prep.

“He’s put the winkers on, so I think I’ll be just riding like he jumps. I want to give him every chance and there’s no reason to rush him now to be anywhere because he’s up to a distance that suits. You’d like to think over the last furlong, he gets his chance to get home.”

Rawiller pilots Heritage Stakes favourite Blue Door for the first time and said she seems to be coping well with racing, after riding her in trackwork this week.

He also has veteran Private Eye for the group 2 Shannon Stakes, and he was confident he could bounce back from last-start failure in the Tramway.

“Just put a line through last time,” he said.

“He just didn’t want to go on a firm track, and I wouldn’t have thought it would be hard tomorrow. He just wants the cut of it. It was just like a road the last time.”