01-07-2025
The Awesome story behind the namesake of Blake Ryan's talented two-year-old
Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan will be at Rosehill on Saturday armed with his exciting two-year-old debut winner Just Awesome.
The gelding's name will be instantly recognisable for racing fans and breeding scholars in particular.
Enter the Magic Millions Sales Director David Chester who had a front-row seat for the original Just Awesome 's brief but spectacular career.
'I remember the late Ken Turner trained him and he was a pretty smart racehorse,'' Chester told Racenet.
For the record, the son of Last Tycoon was foaled in 1990 and was a member of the same crop sired by the Breeders' Cup Mile winner as Mahogany, Lady Jakeo, Tracey's Element and Magic Of Money.
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Just Awesome, unlike the modern-day version, was beaten on debut but hardly disgraced given it was behind Geoff and Beryl White's future Galaxy winner, Jetball.
As for Just Awesome, his stakes-win came at Rosehill on August 27 in 1994 when Shane Dye steered the colt to a narrow victory in the Concorde Stakes.
His race record and pedigree was enough to earn Just Awesome a place on the then revered stallion roster at Wakefield Stud which at the time, included Kala Dancer, who would go on to throw Melbourne Cup winner Subzero and the ill-fated Angst.
'The late Brian Agnew bought the horse as a stallion prospect to stand in the Hunter Valley,'' Chester explained.
'And he (Just Awesome) was at a farm at Beaudesert, I can't remember the name of it, but anyway it was 'gelding day' and I think they had about half a dozen horses to geld and they brought down Just Awesome.
'They never checked the brand. Anyway the vet took out one testicle and then he said 'are you sure this is the right horse?'
'And then all hell broke loose. They checked the brand and found out they'd taken a testicle out of Just Awesome.'
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Needless to say it was a big deal at the time, with the career of one of the nation's boom soon-to-be stallions almost over before it began.
'Brian rang me and he said 'David, can you help me sell the horse, I don't want him now','' Chester said.
'So I rang Fred Brown who had a property at Southbrook.
'He was quite a big client of (the Magic Millions), as a breeder and racehorse owner. John Size used to train for him when he trained in Brisbane; Fred was one of John's best clients.
'So I rang Fred and Fred said 'I like the horse, but Jesus David, let me talk to Reg Pascoe' who was the leading horse vet on the Darling Downs.
'Reg said 'Fred, first year you might have to just go a little bit easy on him but that testicle will develop and he will be able to cover as many mares as you want, it should not affect him at all later on.'
Which is exactly what Brown did.
Just Awesome covered a mere 56 mares in his first season in 1996.
That number rose to 68 in the following season but then tragedy struck.
Just Awesome died in April, 1998, leaving behind an eventful and ultimately unfulfilled career that only became evident as his limited number of offspring made it to the racetrack.
'He was a very good stallion,'' Chester said. 'He was sensational in what he did in the first couple of seasons.
'You couldn't believe it. Just everything he got could run.'
According to figures supplied by Racing And Sports, Just Awesome's two (small) crops delivered winners of 318 races including five stakes-winners, led by Sound The Alarm who won the Group 1 Railway Stakes at Ellerslie on New Year's Day in 2002.
Vale Just Awesome (1990-1998), gone but not forgotten.
