‘I want the colours on him’: How owner landed Golden Eagle triple threat

Prominent owner Francis Cook knew as soon as he saw Linebacker and Evaporate as yearlings that he wanted his and wife Christine’s colours on them.

And when Rosehill trainers Lee and Cherie Curtis, who won the 2016 VRC Oaks with the Cooks’ 100-1 shot Lasqueti Spirit, came to him with a chance to have their colours on Modella, he quickly agreed.

On Saturday, those choices will give the Cooks a trio of first chances in the $10 million Golden Eagle at Royal Randwick.

The Cooks’ silks of maroon, white crossed sashes, yellow armbands and cap are a regular sight in Sydney and Melbourne racing across 22 stables, but they have never been in the four-year-old feature, the second-richest race in Australia.

And they are in the 16-horse field with quality, not just quantity.

John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained Linebacker was a $6 TAB second favourite after a brilliant Silver Eagle victory, while Evaporate, prepared by Ben, Will and JD Hayes, was $10 after a narrow last-start second in the group 1 Toorak Handicap. Modella is a long-shot at $81 but was an impressive last-start winner at Rosehill.

For the Cooks, the thrill of having live chances in the Golden Eagle comes in a year in which Kris Lees-trained Rivellino, which they have shares in, was a luckless fourth in the Golden Slipper. The Central Coast couple also finished the 2024-25 season with the most wins as owners on Australian Turf Club tracks with 30.

“We hadn’t had a Golden Slipper runner until this year, and we hadn’t had Golden Eagle runners until this year, after 30 years in the industry,” Francis said.

“It’s the rewards, I suppose, of putting in the hard yards around the sales all these years, you eventually get some good horses.

“If we win the Eagle, it would be a wonderful cap to the year.”

Unbeaten Chris Waller-trained star Autumn Glow was the $2.20 favourite, and the Cooks were wary of Japanese challenger Panja Tower ($6.50), but they were backing their geldings.

“There’s not a lot between them,” Francis said of Linebacker and Evaporate.

“My personal opinion is Linebacker is probably two lengths better, but he will need to be to beat that field, and Evaporate will be right there on his hammer.

“From our standpoint, [Autumn Glow] is the best miler in Australia, so we’re just hopeful we can fill a place.

“We’re not smugly confident, but we are quietly confident [Linebacker] will be right in the finish.

“John and Tom have done a fantastic job with Linebacker, particularly after his antics as a colt, to get him back as a gelding to win a Randwick Guineas and now the Silver Eagle. They are not bad consolation prizes.

“Evaporate, unfortunately, he beat [subsequent Toorak winner] Transatlantic the week before [in the Sandown Stakes] and got two kilos more for the Toorak, otherwise I think he would have won that.”

With Modella, they are hoping lightning strikes twice with the Curtis team at the top level after Lasqueti Spirit’s memorable front-running effort under Brenton Avdulla nine years ago.

“We have pulled off a 100-1 surprise before,” he said.

“Lee and Cherie are confident she will run a good race, but if she gets into the top five, we’ll be rapt.”

The success with Linebacker and Evaporate has been sweeter for Cook given his work at the sales to target each one. Linebacker was a $A147,000 buy at the Karaka sales in New Zealand, while Evaporate was a $330,000 purchase for Lindsay Park at the Magic Millions.

“I go each year with John O’Shea and Ron Finemore and a group of about a dozen to Karaka, and we go out to six to eight studs,” he said.

“John, Ron and I, we all picked out this wonderful colt and I remember pointing to him and saying to John, ‘I want the colours on him’, and that was at the parades before we even got to the sales, so John made sure he got him.

“With Evaporate, we love Per Incantos and Cat and Sam [Williams] at Little Avondale [Stud] have become great friends. When we go to the sales, we only look at fillies normally, and at Magic Millions I marked all the Per Incantos, colts and fillies, and this colt absolutely stood out.

“When the Hayes boys bought him, I jumped straight on the phone and said, ‘what percentage do you need to get the colours on him?’

“Lee and Cherie picked [Modella] out of the Arrowfield draft and came to us and said, can you take a share for the colours in Modella? I had a look at her, and Castelvecchio is a good stallion. She’s quite exciting too, and I think next preparation will be her best.”

The Cooks will be trackside Saturday before turning their attention to the Melbourne Cup carnival. They are part-owners in Sir Delius, which was controversially ruled out of the Cup, but they also have shares in runners Royal Supremacy and Athabascan.