‘We’re in it to Own Racehorses and Enjoy Them’: Mick Mariscotti on Crack Juvenile Zavateri

[Wandering Eyes]

“We're enjoying it enormously.” Those are words racing needs to hear from every owner. 

In the case of Mick and Janice Mariscotti, who have been in the game long enough to have experienced both good days and bad, they know to appreciate a decent one when he comes along, and in Zavateri they look to have just that.

“He's by far and away the best two-year-old we've ever had,” says Mick of the unbeaten young son of Without Parole, who now has the G2 July Stakes and G2 Vintage Stakes on his swiftly burgeoning CV. 

The Mariscottis are familiar figures at Tattersalls during Books 1 and 2 of the October Yearling Sales each year, always working closely in tandem with their longtime trainer Andrew Balding. In more recent years, Eve Johnson Houghton has also trained for the couple and her successful sales partnership with Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock led to the purchase of Zavateri at Book 2, for what now looks like a bargain price of 35,000gns.

“It was deliberate,” Mariscotti says of Zavateri being a slightly earlier type than he and his wife have tended to race. “It's nice when a plan works. Because we have two trainers, Eve and Andrew, and we tend to buy horses at the same sales, Somerville, Book 1 and Book 2, and we felt when we were at the sales last year that we'd give Eve a slightly different brief than Andrew. That was to buy us a two-year-old that hopefully will progress, rather than just an out-and-out two-year-old. And she did.”

He adds, “I think we are one of only three [horses] that have ever won the July Stakes and the Vintage, so we're in a select group.”

 

Mick and Janice Mariscotti with Andrew Balding | Tattersalls

 

That Vintage win at Goodwood, under a 3lb penalty for Zavateri's Newmarket success, naturally has all connected to the colt dreaming of next year's Classics. Meanwhile, of course, the phone has been ringing hot.

“We were only halfway back from Salisbury after his maiden win, and we got the first offer,” says Mariscotti, who echoes the emphatic statement issued by his wife in the aftermath at Goodwood, that this one is not for sale.

“Obviously, we've been blown away by the interest in him, and the figures that have been put to us are mind-blowing, but at the end of the day, we're in it to own racehorses and to enjoy them. He, at the moment, looks like he has the potential to be the best we've ever had, and we're going to stick with him. So we may regret it in due course, but no, we're going to stick with him. We don't sell everything.”

He continues, “We are known for being sellers, but Masekela a few years ago was not as good as him, but he'd come second in the Superlative, and he looked like he was one of the better two-year-olds. And again, we were offered large amounts of money for him, but we decided to stick with him. So it's something that we will do. Particularly, I really don't like selling two-year-olds. It's too early in their career.”

Bred by John and Tanya Gunther, and by their Newsells Park Stud-based homebred St James's Palace Stakes winner Without Parole, Zavateri is the first foal of the Aga Khan-bred mare Zeroua (Siyouni). Though she and her dam Zerkaza were both unraced, the latter's parents, Dalakhani and Zarkava, were a little bit special. Sometimes talent jumps not one but two generations. 

Born in Epsom, Mariscotti naturally has a Derby dream, but he would happily settle for an earlier Classic next spring.

He says, “Looking at his pedigree, the Derby looks like it would be out of his range, but certainly pedigree-wise, he should be capable of getting a mile. And at the moment, he hasn't put a foot wrong. So we've got to look at the Group 1s over seven furlongs this season and stepping up to a mile next season, and hopefully he continues to develop.

“Eve felt immediately after the race that a Group 1 was the right thing, and because you've got a penalty in a Group 2, they can be quite hard to win with a penalty, even though we did it in the Vintage. So I think the preference would be to go to Ireland [for the National Stakes], but it will obviously be subject to what the going is and all sorts of other things. But I think the major target this year very definitely is the Dewhurst. So that's something that we are aiming for, and it's just what the next step along the path is.”

Eve Johnson Houghton has of course tasted Dewhurst success before when assisting her father Fulke in the training of Tout Seul 23 years ago. 

“She does a fantastic job,” says Mariscotti. “She won't want me pigeonholing her, but she's particularly good with two-year-olds, I think.”

Certainly, Johnson Houghton's buying model, with Bromley, is one to be admired: their other juvenile stakes winner this season is the Windsor Castle Stakes winner Havana Hurricane (Havana Gold), who was bought for 9,000gns at the Somerville Sale.

“Their approach is the same as the one we have with Andrew, which is we're buying the individual rather than the page,” Mariscotti explains. “And that opens up so many more opportunities, because you're not just putting a line through things because you don't like the breeding. And I think that's why the relationship works with Eve and Anthony on the buying front because they're as open-minded as we are, or we're as open-minded as they are.

“But with both Andrew and with Eve, it's always a consensus view. So it's not a question of Eve wanting to buy something, or us wanting to buy something, or Anthony wanting to buy something. We all have to agree that we like the individual, and we've got a price, and we're prepared to go to that price.”

With the rise of Zavateri, it is partly a case of one door opening as another begins to close. The Mariscottis bought the redoubtable stayer Coltrane (Mastercraftsman) at Book 1 seven years ago for 50,000gns and he has repaid them handsomely. Under Balding's care he was won nine of his 33 starts, including the G2 Doncaster Cup and G2 Lonsdale Cup, earning more than £1 million in the process. At the age of eight, he followed up this season's fifth in the Gold Cup at Ascot with victory in the Coral Marathon at Sandown's Eclipse meeting. 

“That was special on several levels,” Mariscotti says. “Firstly because it took him past the million pounds in prize-money, and we were delighted that he did it by winning a race. I mean, we could have run him and come in third, fourth and all the rest, but actually to win a race was great. 

“And I'm an ex-Coral person, so winning a Coral race was particularly special. The guys at Coral, Simon [Clare] and David [Stevens] in particular, I worked with them, and they were genuinely pleased that he won. That particular race was the first Pattern race that he won on his way up. And if it is the last one he wins as he's coming towards the end of his career, I think that's sort of perfect symmetry for me. I'm not saying that we don't want him to win another one, and he is going to run at least once more this season, but he's now eight, and there are the new guys on the block and they're quite difficult to beat. But he's tough, and he's honest, and all the things that you really want in a racehorse.”

The Mariscottis, along with many other owners, will soon begin the hunt for the next bright star, though it will be hard for newcomers to walk in the hoofprints of those who have gone before, including the G2 Queen's Vase winner Dashing Willoughby (Nathaniel).

“We've already booked our hotel rooms for Somerville, Book 1 and Book 2,” the owner says with relish. “Somerville, we hadn't been to, but Eve bought us one there last year, and we'll go back and have a look. Book 1 and Book 2 are typically our hunting grounds. It's becoming harder and harder to buy in Book 1 but we're there because if there is anything that slips through and takes our fancy, we want to be able to take advantage.”

It is a strategy which has worked well in the past and, with their relentless enthusiasm and sustained investment in the sport, nobody can begrudge the Mariscottis their good fortune in owning Zavateri. Long may he run. 

 

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