Skip to main navigation Skip to main content

Kacy Fogden keeping Golden Slipper hopes in perspective

8 March 2022

Share this page

Share on a platform

Or copy the page link

By Jordan Gerrans

It was a comment from Kacy Fogden that would have caught many racing followers off-guard.

“It’s obviously pretty exciting but it’s just racing at the end of the day,” she said.

That statement was uttered by the Gold Coast-based trainer just moments after her promising colt Best Of Bordeaux won his second Group race of his young career – handing the 29-year-old her greatest victory to date.

Most trainers that win a Group 2 race on a path towards the $5 million Golden Slipper would have a reaction akin to Glen Boss after a Melbourne Cup victory or the way Desleigh Forster celebrated when Apache Chase won through to the Stradbroke Handicap last winter.

Fogden was asked post-race about potentially becoming a major player in the Sydney racing scene, which she shot down almost quicker than the question was offered up.

For Fogden, she loves her horses and racing, but it is not everything in her life.

She was reminded of that in the week leading into the Group 2 $250,000 Silver Slipper in the middle of February when her aunty - Rosemary Saunders – lost her battle with cancer.

Even if her racing-loving aunty did not pass away prior to the race, Fogden’s demeanour post-race was unlikely to have been any different.

Best-of-Bordeaux-Sydney.jpg

“I have my priorities in life, I love training horses but at the end of the day family has always come first to me and that has always been my priority,” Fogden said when asked about her composed approach to her training.

“In the lead-up to the Silver Slipper my aunty lost her battle with cancer, so it was a timely reminder about what is actually important in life I think.

“As much we love racing, it can consume so much of your life so I make sure us and our staff have that work-life balance, we always try and get that right.

“Although we do love our horses and a lot of care and attention goes into them, at the end of the day, what will be, will be and it is just horse racing.”

In keeping this demeanour and attitude, Fogden does not let the pressure of having a live chance in the Golden Slipper get to her.

In between the Silver Slipper and the Golden Slipper, Fogden attended Saunders’ funeral, in the middle of attending sales for future stable stars and tending to her team of horses at Aquis Park and on their farm at Canungra.

“She loved it, Silver Slipper day was definitely for her,” Fogden said.

Fogden and her Aquis Farm connection have been building in the Sunshine State over the last few years and the racing world around Australia started to pay attention to the team in recent months with colt Best Of Bordeaux.

The Snitzel colt has the Group 3 Canonbury Stakes and Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes on his resume, before he goes shooting for the famous Golden Slipper later this month.

The stable have won races consistently in recent years but their purchase of the yearling that would become Best Of Bordeaux was their leap of faith – the most expensive horse Fogden has ever purchased.

From the 2021 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, the up-and-coming trainer forked out $425,000 for the colt, using credit to seal the deal.

“It was very scary to bid on him, that is a hell of a lot of money, it was a bit daunting there for a while,” she said.

“That was close to our max, compared to what we are used to paying.

“It is a hell of a lot of money.

“I always liked him, he was always on my list, he was just a balanced, lovely, athletic running style of colt that looked very fast.

“His temperament is exactly every time he came out and paraded what you would hope, he was a hassle free style of colt. He just did his job and went back to his box.”

202203-goldenslipper-a73-EDIT-5.jpg

And, her feelings after her dive head first into the deep end delivered the barn a live Golden Slipper hopeful?

“Maybe a little bit of vindication but it is more a relief,” she said.

“It is quite scary to send a horse down from Queensland with one trial, you are sort of an underdog straight away. He has turned into a very nice colt.”

The youthful Gold Coast trainer is also aiming to break a hoodoo of sorts in the Golden Slipper.

Brisbane trainer Bruce Brown Brown won the time-honoured event in 2002 with Calaway Gal, as hoop Scott Seamer burst through late to claim a thrilling race.

He is the second last Queensland trainer to win the Slipper with Phelan Ready the last horse trained in the Sunshine State to win the race, taking out the 2009 edition.

The entire Queensland industry is behind Fogden, according to Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell.

“It is a great to have a Queensland hope in the world's richest two-year-old race,” Parnell said.

Hoop Sam Clipperton has been on-board Best Of Bordeaux in his first two starts and thinks he is every chance come Golden Slipper day.

“His Canonbury win was no fluke and he felt even better, he is an impressive horse,” Clipperton said.

“Well done to Kacy and the team as they have a liver Slipper chance now.

“In a Slipper, a high pressure race, he will have options – he is a tenacious horse with a real will to win.”

The unbeaten 2YO has been based at Gerald Ryan’s Sydney stables in recent weeks with Fogden regularly heading down to be with the horse, while her staff have remained south of the border with him in recent weeks as well.

IMG-76F5D54D984A-1.JPEG

Multiple Group 1-winning horseman Ryan has became a mentor of sorts for the native New Zealander over the last few years.

“Gerald has been a huge help, I chatted to him a lot in the lead-up to his first race and he said how well the colt had done since he had arrived,” Fogden said.

“He thought he would run well and I think Gerald had more faith in the horse than I did, when I was more nervous than anything.

“Gerald was quietly confident for us, which was nice.

“You always learn something when you spend time with Gerald, his stories are the ones we all live for.”

While the $5 million Golden Slipper over 1200 metres at Rosehill on March 19 is his aim, Fogden says her colt will be back better and stronger in his next season of racing, declaring what he is producing now is just on raw ability.

Fogden has recently changed up the way she prepares her gallopers, no longer working out of her farm at Canungra, now having 15 boxes around the corner from Aquis Park.

“Since taking up the management of all the Aquis horses, we have shortened up the stable a little bit,” she said.

“We no longer train from the farm, we still use the farm, but I think it is beneficial for our horses doing it that. We do not train there in the same capacity as we once did. I enjoy the town environment better.”

Races

1
1

Rosehill Gardens | Australian Turf Club | 12:10 PM

MIDWAY HANDICAP