Shogun Lodge

Shogun Lodge (25 September 1996 – 8 November 2003) was an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won three Group One races, and had each of his 58 starts in Group races. He was a chestnut gelding by Grand Lodge (USA) out of the unraced mare Pride of Tahnee (Best Western-Tahnee's Pride), who also produced the Group One winners Singing The Blues (by Blues Traveller (IRE)) and Referral (by Dr Grace).^[1]

Racing career

Shogun Lodge made a winning debut in the Listed Canonbury Stakes at Randwick on 3 October 1998, and won three of his four starts prior to the Golden Slipper, in which he started favourite and finished a close third.^[2] At three and four, Shogun Lodge won his Group One races, the Epsom Handicap, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the George Main Stakes, in which he defeated the champion mare Sunline. Shogun Lodge won stakes races at two, three, four, five, and seven, and prize money of $4,640,315. In addition, Shogun Lodge was runner-up in 12 Group One races, including the Doncaster Handicap (twice) and the Victoria and AJC Derbies, and, since the introduction of the Group system in the late-1970s, few if any horses have been runner-up in more. These 12 races included defeats by the champions Northerly, Sunline, and Lonhro, and he lost three races by a short-half-head. In one of his greatest performances, Shogun Lodge was beaten by Sunline in head-bobbing finish to the 2002 Doncaster Handicap, in which both horses carried topweight of 58 kilos, and gave 6.5 kilos to Defier, who went on to win three Group One races at weight-for-age. At his next start, in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Shogun Lodge ran one of his worst races, finishing second-last, and, in an 'ominous' sign, was found to have had an 'irregular heart reading'.^[3]

After his first and only winless season at six, Shogun Lodge won the City Tatt's Lightning Handicap first-up as a seven-year-old (coincidentally, over the same course as his debut win, five years earlier), and was sent to Flemington for two further races. In the early stages of the second of these races, the Emirates Stakes, Shogun Lodge suffered a fatal heart attack.^[4] His upset trainer, Bob Thomsen, said 'Oh God... I've probably handled the best horse this country's ever had. The best horse ever to put his head through a bridle was Tulloch and I handled him... his heart weighed 14-and-a-half (pounds)... I'll tell you what, Shogun wasn't far behind him...'^[5]

Race record

Pedigree

See also

• Millionaire Racehorses in Australia

References