Rubiton

Rubiton (18 October 1983 – 25 November 2005) was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse of the mid-1980s.

He was bred by the Oamaru Stud in Victoria. Rubiton's name was a combination of "Ruby" and "ton", a colloquial term for a century in cricket.

Racing career

Rubiton started off solely as a sprinter winning the 1,400 metre weight for age Futurity Stakes and coming third in the Newmarket Handicap and Oakleigh Plate to sprinters Placid Ark and Special.

But in his four-year-old season he came into his own. He won his first four starts of the season dominating at weight for age in the Manikato, Memsie, Feehan and Underwood Stakes.

He was then defeated by Drought and Fair Sir in the Caulfield Stakes after ruining his chances by overexerting himself in trackwork.

Rubiton atoned for the defeat at his next start winning the 1987 Cox Plate in track record time of 2.02.9, beating (Our) Poetic Prince, Fair Sir and Vo Rogue.

He won a week later in the Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.

Having then gone out for a spell, tragically, he never returned due to a tendon injury. He was retired to stud with earnings of A$1,360,330.

Stud career

An outstanding sire at stud, he is one of only two stallions (the other being Heroic) to have won and sired the winner of Australia's greatest weight-for-age race, the Group 1 MVRC Cox Plate.

Rubiton's progeny include 38 stakeswinners for 102 stakeswins. Besides Fields of Omagh, twice winner of the Cox Plate (2003 & 2006), Rubiton is the sire of sprinter Rubitano, (Newmarket Handicap), Adam (Stradbroke Handicap), Flavour (Victoria Racing Club Stakes), Patezza (Doncaster Handicap), Dilly Dally (T J Smith Stakes) and Monopolize (Hong Kong International Bowl, twice).^[1]

Rubiton is also sire of dazzling sprinter Lucky Secret, winner of 14 of 23 race starts, including, respectively, the Group 2 MRC Schillaci Stakes, MVRC A.J. Moir Stakes and MVRC Stanley Wootton Stakes. Lucky Secret was desperately unlucky not to have won the Group 1 rated MRC Oakleigh Plate, having been pipped at the post by Swiss Ace. A $220,000 yearling, winner of over $950,000 in prizemoney, Lucky Secret is trained at Caulfield by Tony Vasil. Unhappily for the horse, bad legs and a serious bleeding attack have conspired to limit the horse from, Vasil claims, becoming "anything."

Melbourne Racing Club have long honoured Rubiton with his own race, the Group 3 Rubiton Stakes, run in February.

Pedigree

See also

• Millionaire Racehorses in Australia

Notes

References

• Rubiton - Profile of a Champion
• Rubiton Remembered
• Thoroughbred Heritage: Family 4 - Layton Barb Mare
• Bloodlines.net: Family 4 - Layton Violet Barb Mare
• Bloodlines.net: Family 4L - Golden Grove

External links

• Rubiton's pedigree and partial racing stats