Sydney Derby: A Look Back At The Winners And Their Glory

If you think the Sydney Derby isn’t a huge race or a major launching pad for some of the biggest turf horses in the game, think again.

There have been twelve runnings of the 12-furlong Grade 1 Sydney Derby on the turf course in Victoria, dating back to 2000, and this race that will be run this weekend in Victoria has produced incredible riches for the winners and also launched some pretty big careers.

Only two sires have produced multiple winners of the Sydney Derby, and those two sires are Montjeu and A.P. Indy.

Montjeu sired back to back winners of the Sydney Derby, when his sons Crusading Enforcer (2009) and Burnt Lawn (2010) won the biggest of the early-season races for three year olds in Australia.

A.P. Indy sired two Sydney Derby winners also.  His first winning son was Sunnybank Memorial in 2004.  Sunnybank Memorial is the richest winner of the Sydney Derby to date, having accumulated over $10.8 million in earnings over his career.

And when Death By Laughing crossed the finished line first in the Sydney Derby in 2011, he became the second son of A.P Indy to win the big race down under.

While the present-day Sydney Derby purse is $1.6 million, it wasn’t always that way.  That present day purse structure started back in 2009, and before that– from 2000-2008–the Sydney Derby was just a million dollar race.

As we said above, while Sunnybank Memorial is the richest of all the horses to have won the Sydney Derby with $10.8 million in career earnings, the horse that is second to him in that department isn’t that far behind.  The 2005 Sydney Derby winner, Horseshoe Bay, won $10.5 million in his career.

Crusading Enforcer, who won this race in 2009, comes in third in the earnings department with $7.7 million, and right behind him in fourth place for career earnings is 2008 Sydney Derby winner Portman’s Perfect, who won $7.1 million on the track over the years.

All told, the 12 Sydney Derby winners have combined to earn a little over $55 million over their careers, meaning the median average winnings for each of the 12 Sydney Derby winners comes out to about $4.5 million–and counting.  Cha Ching!   Remember, four of these past 12 Sydney Derby winners are still active on the track.

Let’s take a look the different nationalities of sires of horses who have won the Sydney Derby.

Altogether, the 12 Derby winners’ sires have hailed from three different continents and five different countries.

The Americans have, by far, dominated this race over the years.

No less than six American-bred horses have won the Sydney Derby, and all of them were bred in Kentucky, except one.  Sal Is Gone (2001), Sunnybank Memorial (2004), Kirby’s Best Yet (2007), Portman’s Perfect (2008) and Death By Laughing (2011) were the Kentucky-breds who won the Sydney Derby.  The only non-Kentucky-bred American horse to win the Derby was Equestrian Order (2004), and he was foaled in Washington state. 

Ireland would be the next biggest producer of Sydney Derby winners behind the Americans. The Irish have won this race three times since 2000.  Cortez (2006), Crusading Enforcer (2009) and Burnt Lawn (2010) were the three Irish-breds to win the Sydney Derby.

Great Britain has one winner. The inaugural 2000 Sydney Derby winner, Duke Three (sired by the great Diesis) hailed from the island nation. New Zealand also has one winner, and that was the son of Zabeel, a horse by the name of Mighty Dancer (2002).

The home court advantage hasn’t held well for Australian-breds running in the Sydney Derby. Only one Aussie-bred horse, Horseshoe Bay (2005), has won the Sydney Derby.

The Sydney Derby has failed to produce a multiple graded stakes winner only once, and that was Equestrian Order (2003), whose lone graded win of his career came right here in Victoria that year. He would never win a graded race before or after his big win in the Sydney Derby.

Speaking of graded winners, the 12 horses who have won the Sydney Derby have won an incredible combined 74 graded stakes races, including their wins in the Derby.

Leading the way in graded stakes wins, of course, is the richest winner of the Sydney Derby, 2004 winner Sunnybank Memorial, who won an amazing 21 graded stakes races over the course of his illustrious career.

Sunnybank Memorial, arguably the best of the Sydney Derby winners, hit the graded winner’s circle nine times as a three year old and 12 times as a four year old.

The next year’s winner, Horseshoe Bay in 2005, produced the second most graded stakes wins of any Sydney Derby winner.  The only Aussie-bred to win this race in his home country won 18 graded stakes in all.  He won six as a three year old, and he came back in his four year old campaign to record 12 graded wins, equaling the four year old campaign of Sunnybank Memorial.

Coming in third in most graded wins is 2009 Sydney Derby winner Crusading Enforcer, who has won nine graded stakes races over the course of his career.

Only one horse has come to the Sydney Derby undefeated and left undeafeted after it was over. That was Kirby’s Best Yet, who won this race in 2007.   He was a perfect 5-5 coming into the Sydney Derby, and he would go on to win the first nine races of his career, before he finally tasted defeat in the Grade 1 Owner’s Stakes later in his three year old season, after his win here in Victoria.

The Sydney Derby has been a launching pad for future Derby de English winners.  No less than five of the 12 Sydney Derby winners went on to win the Grade 1 Derby de English, starting in 2004, with Sunnybank Memorial.  The following year, Horseshoe Bay would also go on to win the Sydney Derby and follow it up with a win in the Derby de English.

The other three horses to pull a Sydney Derby-Derby de English double were Kirby’s Best Yet (2007), Portman’s Perfect (2008) and Crusading Enforcer (2009). No horse has pulled off the Sydney-Derby de English double since 2009.

Back in the early days of this race, the natural progression for Sydney Derby winners was that the winners would go on to run in–and usually win–the Grade 1 Adelaide Derby. Four winners of the Sydney Derby have also won the Adelaide Derby.  Duke Three (who won the 2000 version of the Sydney Derby), Sal is Gone (2001), Sunnybank Memorial (2004) and Horseshoe Bay (2005) all went on to win the Grade 1 Adelaide Derby after their big wins in Victoria.

Horseshoe Bay, a son of Red Ransom, was the sole Aussie-bred to win this race, but he also had another distinction that set him apart from all the other Sydney Derby winners over the years–a very important distinction, in fact.

While he was the only Aussie-bred to win this race on his home court, so to speak, the Australians can boast something of their Derby winner that no other country can.

Their home-bred winner, Horseshoe Bay, would go on to become the only Sdyney Derby champion to go on to capture multiple Breeders’ Bowl Turf championship wins.

Horseshoe Bay scored in the Breeders’ Bowl Turf the same year he captured the Sydney Derby (2005), and then he repeated his Breeders’ Bowl Turf triumph in 2006.  Horseshoe Bay nearly made it a perfect 3-3 on Breeder’s Bowl Day in 2007, but he would finish third in the world championships that year, beaten 3 ¾ lengths by Lex Luthor, who finished second in–you guessed it–the Sydney Derby in 2006.

And last–but definitely not least of all the factoids surrounding the amazing Sydney Derby–is this little teensy weensy one.

While this race is called the Sydney Derby, it is held at Victoria Race Course, for some reason.  And, as we all know, Sydney is located in New South Wales (wink).