It has been a whirlwind 11 months in the training career of Dominic Sutton who landed his first Group 1 winner when Feroce took out the Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.
Sutton commenced his training career at Pakenham last year and had his first runner, followed by his first winner, at that track last March.
He registered his first metropolitan win at Caulfield the following month, just as he was moving his training base to Ballarat, while earlier this year Sutton also established a stable at Flemington.
Along the journey Sutton watched in agony as Feroche was denied victory in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) last spring, a defeat that was a bitter pill to swallow.
But all was forgiven on Saturday when Feroche ($14), under Billy Egan, dug deep to score a three-quarter length win from Savaglee ($11) with Goldrush Guru ($7.50) a length away third.
“It’s going to take a few days to settle in to be honest,” Sutton said.
“I’ve just been having a really tough run of seconds recently, so I was hoping to just get a winner anywhere, so to do it on the biggest stage of all with this horse, he’s been the flag bearer for our stable since day one.
“It took a long time to get over the Caulfield Guineas, I’m not going to lie.
“A lot of people were congratulating us, but I still felt pretty bitter about it all, thinking that we could have won on that day.
“We all know how hard it is to win these races and to have a horse good enough and present him in the right order on the day, so, sometimes you think, ‘Am I going to be waiting for a long time now until the next one comes along.
“This horse has just been super. He’s just improved, improved, improved. He was probably the third ever horse we bought out of the sales.”
Sutton originally travelled from the UK for three months to gain experience in the racing industry.
He said it was never his intention to train, but 10 years later he has set up a successful stable in two locations, is a Group 1 winner with almost 60 horses on his books.
“I was meant to be here for three months, and here we are 10 years later,” Sutton said.
“I never had the initial plan to train, I just wanted to come and experience it, (and I) loved it.
“I obviously found a girl that made me stay, and here we are. It’s been a crazy journey, and I just couldn’t do it without the people around me.”
Jockey Billy Egan registered his second Group 1 win, having piloted Dunkel to success in the 2023 South Australian Derby at Morphettville.
Egan said he got a lot of satisfaction out of Saturday’s success piloting Feroce to victory for Sutton.
“I’m just really happy for Dom,” Egan said.
“For a young bloke, having so many horses in his first year of training and also having Group 1 runners in your first year of training, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that.
“He handles himself really well. It’s just great that he can handle himself in such a way and do an amazing job with these horses in his first year.”
Egan said he went out with a plan to be positive from barrier 11 as Feroce does not have an explosive sprint.
But what he does have is tenacity which shone through.
“The race worked out really nice,” Egan said.
“We had the plan to press forward and be just behind those leaders. We weren’t too far away, because he just hasn’t got a huge sprint, but he can really hold a good gallop and sometimes things go your way.
“We had a plan and it’s not often that you get it presented to you like that, but it just worked out a treat today.”
