Second Group 1 in seven days for Seth in Australia

With just two crops of racing age, young Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth is stamping his authority siring two Group 1 winners in Australia in the space of one week.

This time it was Linebacker who turned the tables on Broadsiding – having met as two-year-olds in the Gr.1 Champagne Stakes – taking the Gr.1 Randwick Guineas at Royal Randwick for John O’Shea and Tom Charlton, who celebrated their first elite-level victory as a training partnership with John recording his 30^th career Group 1 and Tom celebrating his first.

Bred by GSA Bloodstock, Linebacker was purchased out of Haunui Farm’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for $160,000 by O’Shea and Suman Hedge Bloodstock.

Linebacker became Super Seth’s first Australian winner and first stakes winner last season in the Gr.3 Baillieu Handicap (1400m) at start two, co-trainer Tom Charlton said of Saturday’s win: “This horse has pleased us all the way since we gelded him. You could see a long way out that he was in a really good rhythm today. They were going at a high speed, but he looked comfortable.

“He’s always been a very talented horse. Last run, I just was convinced it wasn’t his true running. He just got in a better position today and it worked out well.”

Rewind seven days and it was Feroce’s Group 1 win that had the racing world cheering for young trainer Dom Sutton who celebrated his first Group 1 win as a trainer taking the Gr.1 Australian Guineas at Flemington.

Both Linebacker and Feroce come from the first crop by Super Seth, who was New Zealand’s leading first-season sire in 2023/24 and heads the second-season standings in 2024/25. His 28 winners include six at stakes level, with Feroce and Linebacker backed up by La Dorada, Sethito, Poetic Champion and Super Photon.