Regardless of what happens in the remainder of Anamoe’s career, his 2022/2023 season is going to be spoken of for many years to come.
The son of Street Boss would be an unbackable favourite to be crowned Australia’s Champion Horse of the Year, thanks to six Group 1 wins, headlined by a stirring Cox Plate win.
Only Winx, who won seven Group 1s in 2018/19, has won more in a season since the introduction of the Group 1 classification system in 1979 and Anamoe gets the chance to equal the legendary mare in Saturday’s $5 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.
Victory would also see the James Cummings-trained four-year-old match Octagonal with 10 career Group 1 wins, which is the second most by a colt or entire on Australian racetracks.
So You Think also won 10 Group 1s, but five of them came in Europe when trained by Aidan O’Brien, with Lonhro the only one to have won more with 11.
The only horses from Australasia to have won more than 11 Group 1s are mares Winx (25), Black Caviar (15), Melody Belle (14) and Sunline (13) and geldings Kingston Town (14) and Tie The Knot (13).
“He’s a rare commodity, he’s a once in a generation horse, and to have the opportunity to retire him to stud with that sort of race record is phenomenal,” Godolphin Australia managing director Vin Cox said.
Anamoe’s ninth Group 1 win came in the George Ryder Stakes, which followed wins in the Chipping Norton Stakes, Cox Plate, The Might And Power, George Main Stakes and Winx Stakes earlier in the season.
He also won the Group 2 Apollo Stakes in February with his only defeat as a four-year-old coming in the Group 1 Champions Stakes a fortnight after his Cox Plate win.
The results have justified the risk Godolphin took racing him on at four when he had already done enough to warrant being retired to their Kelvinside stud at the end of his three-year-old season.
Anamoe won the Group 1 ATC Sires’ at two, having placed in the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond, and as a three-year-old won a Caulfield Guineas and Rosehill Guineas at Group 1 level but was best-remembered for his controversial second placing to State Of Rest in the Cox Plate.
“We did take a risk, clearly, and a lot of people would have said, ‘no, we’re going to take him to the stallion to the barn’, but we chose not to, we took that risk, and fortunately it worked out for us,” Cox said.
“It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s nice when it’s worked out as strongly as it has.”
Anamoe will be presented with perhaps his biggest test on Saturday, when he takes on English raider Dubai Honour and Japan’s Unicorn Lion in a 2000m event that is doubling as a final audition for a shot at the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes (1600m) on Day 1 of the Royal Ascot meeting.
Anamoe was this week also nominated for the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes (1609m) at Newbury on May 20, but Cox said his campaign has been geared around trying to get to Royal Ascot in June.
“We’ve always said that we’d like to do that, everything’s got to go right for us to get on the plane, it’s got to go right when we get there but we’re optimistic about what’s ahead of him,” Cox said.
“It would be a great feather in his cap to do it and the Godolphin team would be so proud if he carried that off but, even still, what he’s done so far is very special.”