Benzou sets sights on Queensland Racing Carnival success

By Brodie Nickson

As the Queensland Racing Carnival heats up, it was three-year-old gelding Benzou who stamped himself as genuine contender earlier in the season.

Three-year-old gelding Benzou, a son of Zousain, overcame a wide run to pull away for a one-and-a-half length win in the 1000m Three-Year-Old Handicap at Eagle Farm.

The win came as no surprise to trainer Billy Healey after an impressive trial at Eagle Farm.

“I thought the horse is well-above average and it was a case of whether 1000m was a little sharp for him where it had been previously first-up,” Healey said.

“I always knew he would carry good improvement out of the run, but still thought if he was awarded the right run and didn’t get too far back he would be thereabouts.”

It didn’t take long for Hong Kong to come knocking with offers in excess of $1 million tabled for Benzou following the win, however, Healey and connections aren’t getting carried away after he had already gained Hong Kong interest following his initial trials.

Benzou is one of four foals by dam Benella to thrive on the racetrack.

A $150,000 yearling purchase, Benella didn’t justify her purchase price at the races failing to breakthrough in eight starts, however, she has saved her best for the breeding barn. Widden Stud picked her up for $12,500, a cut-price buy now.

She has had five foals - four to race and all of those winning. Healey has purchased and trained four of the five foals.

Chikara and King Yoshi for SJC Thoroughbreds, the same connections as Benzou, were the first two purchases with both geldings winning three races each.

“I bought all bar one, we have had a bit of luck and they have all won races,” Healey said.

“Benzou is by far the best one we have had.”

Benzou was a $90,000 yearling purchase at the 2023 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

“The first two have had their fair share of niggles. [Benzou] is by far the easiest to train,” Healey said.

“Chikara and King Yoshi used to want to get it over and done with a bit early. They took a bit of harnessing early and had a few niggles as they went along. Benzou has been a lot more straight forward and he is a completely different type of horse. He is a big, strong horse where the other two weren’t very big and quite sharp horses. He looks like he will train out in trip and is a bit more versatile. He is not one dimensional by any means.”

Healey admits he was happy to give Benzou a bit more time and thought enough of the gelding to travel to New South Wales to target higher prize money Maidens.

“When I bought him I thought he would want a bit of time, so we took him along steadily and didn’t really aim him up at anything early,” he said.

“I trialled him up here and thought you only get one crack at winning a Maiden - you may as well have a crack at one of [the rich races].

“He isn’t a QTIS horse or anything so running for $15,000 on a Friday night didn’t really appeal to me.

“We paid a bit of money when we bought him so thought it would be good to see him have a crack and it paid off.”

After running fourth in a 1000m Super Maiden at Hawkesbury, Benzou improved a fortnight later to win a rich Inglis Xtra Bonus Maiden at the same track, pocketing the $28,400 prize money for first, $11,250 Bobs Bonus and $100,000 Inglis Bonus, surging his prize money past $143,000 after two starts.

Although the win meant a lot to each of his connections, arguably none appreciated the success more than Sam Sheehan.

Founder of SJC Thoroughbreds, whose black and white silks are sported by Benzou, Sheehan was in the midst of a battle with very severe Aplastic Anemia.

Aplastic Anemia is a rare blood disorder where an autoimmune reaction leads to bone marrow not producing enough blood cells.

“It essentially means your bone marrow doesn’t work anymore,” Sheehan said.

“Bone marrow is what generates everything we need as humans to live, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets to stop bleeding etc, so I was as close to ‘zeros’ for everything as you could imagine.”

Sheehan went through chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, spending a lot of time in Hospital and ICU. 

It got to the point where his family were told to say their goodbyes and that he likely wasn’t going to come through it.

“It was obviously very confronting for them as before this I was a healthy 30-year-old that enjoyed travelling and work. So, it has been a very wild ride of weekly and now fortnightly hospital visits for treatment on the back of a three month stint in their full time,” Sheehan said.

“Terribly the wi-fi actually blocks punting websites and racing channels so I had to up my data and hotspot my laptop off my phone. Might need to include that in my Yelp review of my hospital stay.”

His fiancée, Hannah Anderson, is no stranger to racing herself. She was a part of the FBAA Internship program where she worked closely with Jim Clarke, Boomer Bloodstock and David Mee before working with champion Queensland trainer Tony Gollan and strapping Isotope.

Sheehan’s partnership with Billy Healey began five years ago and it was a mutual passion for horses that started their close friendship, leading to Sheehan standing alongside Healey as a groomsman at his wedding.

“I remember Billy calling me one day. We hadn’t purchased a yearling with him yet, only a few tried horses, which we got results with and then traded them on for profits, so our tail was in the air a bit and we were looking to find a young horse that could be anything,” Sheehan said.

“He said ‘I think we have found a cracker here, it might be a bit more money than we had been spending on the tried horses but that is the price you pay for unknown!’.”

It was a Supido x Benella colt named Chikara.

“It was a thrill for mostly first-time ownership group. I filled with mates locally here in Brisbane or a group of friends we had from living in China,” Sheehan said.

Benzou was the most expensive purchase of the family until Gai Waterhouse, Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds purchased the fourth foal, a filly, for $150,000.

Bellazaine, also by Zousain, hasn’t disappointed, winning the Listed Lonhro Plate at her second start and ran eighth in the Group 1 Golden Slipper.

“Bella (Bellazaine) was just a cracking horse physically at the sale and Billy and I both agreed that we wanted to be on her and try and get her but sadly [she] went for a bit more than what we had hoped and had in the kitty to secure her,” Sheehan said.

“Although we couldn’t secure the entire share, I wanted to be involved even in a small way, so I asked Matt Commerford to introduce me to Gai and Adrian and [Anderson and Sheehan] ended up taking a share in the filly that day of the sale.”

Healey is hoping the feature race success for the family is only starting as he eyes the Queensland Racing Carnival with Benzou.

“I think anyone would probably agree (he is carnival quality) off the (first-up) win, they tell me his sectionals were pretty good and he will probably on get better as we step him up to 1200m,” he said.

“He has obviously got to continue to improve but I think he has got the makings of a carnival horse for sure.”