Now the dust has settled on Schwarz’s maiden Group 1 win, attention turns to how best to utilise his time between now and the start of the breeding season and a trip to England has emerged as a possibility.
Co-trainer John O’Shea said on Monday morning that a decision on the Zoustar four-year-old’s future would be made by Rosemont Stud, but timing lent itself to him having one more run before retirement.
The $1 million Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m), formerly the BTC Cup, at Eagle Farm on May 31 is the leading local option, but there is also the prospect of heading to Royal Ascot for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (1200m) in June.
“The options for him will be to run in the BTC sprint in Brisbane and then there’s also an option to dally with the concept of giving him another try down the straight, but with a better preparation,” O’Shea told RSN927.
“Come to Melbourne, try him down the straight in a trial and if he was to trial well then there’s obviously the option to run him at Ascot.
“They would be the two options for the horse, if he is going to run again.
“He’ll definitely go to stud this year, he’d be well-patronised, he’s got an amazing pedigree and he’s an outstanding-looking individual.
“He ticks a lot of boxes in terms of a future stallion prospect.”
The William Reid Stakes win was Schwarz’s sixth victory from 12 starts and while he has won at Flemington, his only start down the straight resulted in a seventh placing in last year’s Group 3 Rising Fast Stakes (1200m) won by Maharba.
O’Shea said while disappointed with that result, he learnt enough from the excursion to give him confidence that he could turn things around.
“I’m a great believer in historical precedents and I think that the right horses to take to Ascot are horses that have run well in a Lightning or a Newmarket,” O’Shea, who trains with Tom Charlton, said.
“In that sense, he doesn’t meet the criteria but the one time that we did run him down the straight, if I had my time over again I would have done it differently.”
Schwarz’s Group 1 win was a triumph for the Rosemont-led Victorian Alliance, who spent more than $20 million across a swag of yearlings at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 sales.
Schwarz, who is out of the Not A Single Doubt mare Summer Sham, whose granddam is a half-sister to Redoute’s Choice, is among their first crop and cost $1.25 million at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
