Koojan, a young inexperienced pacer, has a history of misadventure, and he is fortunate to be alive according to his owner Jim Giumelli, who breathed a sigh of relief after watching him come from a seemingly impossible position at the bell to get up and snatch victory in the 2130m Trotsynd Register Your Interest Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“He should be dead, but only good horses die young,” said Giumelli, who outlaid $85,000 to buy Koojan at the 2023 Perth APG yearling sale.
Koojan, trained by Mike Reed, made a satisfactory debut when he finished third behind Louie Vee in a race for two-year-olds at Gloucester Park in February 2024 before things started to go wrong.
“He then did a tendon and underwent stem cell treatment,” said Giumelli. “And since then, he has been a nightmare. During his recuperation he got out of his stable and jumped over the fence next door and ran into an electric fence before bouncing back and jumping over the fence he originally jumped and ended up in a tangle in barb wire.
“Later, he kicked Mike, who suffered a chipped bone in a thumb, and he continued to do everything wrong. He got his foot tangled in a three-strand gate when spelling at Ferguson Valley, and I had to race off to get an angle grinder to free him.”
These mishaps combined to keep Koojan out of action for 20 months, and he lined up at barrier seven in Friday night’s race in which he was the $3.70 favourite at his tenth career start.
Shannon Suvaljko was happy to settle Koojan down at the rear while stablemate Heez Good As Gold ($6) dawdled through the lead time in 39.1sec. and the opening 400m section in a leisurely 31sec.
Koojan was eighth at the bell before Suvaljko eased him three wide at the 700m, and he gradually made up ground with the third quarter being run in a slick 28.5sec. Grevis ($4.60) enjoyed a cosy run in fifth place, three back on the pegs, before Aiden De Campo gained an inside passage in the back straight and got into the clear at the 420m mark and into the lead 270m from home.
Koojan was forced four wide as he sustained a spirited burst which saw him get up in the final stride to beat Grevis by a head, with Lou Lamour ($3.90) a half-head away in third place after enjoying a perfect trip, one-out and one-back.
This took Koojan’s record to ten starts for two wins, four placings and $23,144. He is by American sire Always B Miki and is the first foal out of the New South Wales-bred Sportswriter mare Tenniele Erin, who won the group 1 Sales Classic for two-year-old filles at Gloucester Park in April 2017.
“They got it pretty easy in front,” said Suvaljko. “And we were four deep in the last lap, and to Koojan’s credit he kept fighting.”
Giumelli named Koojan after a black Angus bull by that name he bought at a Kojonup sale for $24,000 and went on to be highly successful at stud, with a 95 to 100 per cent strike rate.
While Giumelli s delighted to have Koojan on the comeback trail, he reported that his seven-year-old Bettors Delight gelding Henty, a winner at three of his seven starts, is suffering from a bowed tendon and faces an uncertain future. On the bright side, Giumelli’s brilliant young mare Water Lou is back in work for Reed and should be able to resume racing in the next few months.
