Big Bad Baz Day - Baraqiel keeps re-writing his own script! Now add a Mauritian accountant.

The current Valley may be on its last digs but remains a wondrous place.

Especially when they run a Group 1 race and especially when Baraqiel wins it. If they need help pulling the joint down, get “Big Bad Baz” to win the last race ever run (and won) there in October.

The Valley retains that colosseum feel but when Baraqiel added a defining scene to an already remarkable script, it was more mosh pit with a tinge of evangelical fervour.

Or in other words, very real, very special. Very, well, noisy.

The Valley’s effervescent owner’s host Johnny “1000 Giggles” Trinchera knew he was in trouble. His phone booth that doubles as the winner’s room was never going to be big enough and quickly The Valley team moved them to the grandstand to accommodate the 100 plus Bennett Racing owners of all scales of stake holding.

Team Baraqiel after the G1 Moir (courtesy Racing Photos)

Sometimes the television coverage doesn’t give you enough. Saturday was that sort of day.

Sure, the reigning Melbourne Cup hero Knight's Choice was there, but barely rated a look. More were interested in the 33-year-old Shetland pony Crossword stabled next to him. The pair briefly met for a photo op.

When Crossword met Knight's Choice (supplied)

Crossword even had his own shiny nameplate, Knight’s Choice just had stall 120.

Cup winning jockey, Robbie Dolan, was back in Melbourne, his breeches now carrying a scan code for bookings, but in something of a rarity, he wasn’t required to sing Saturday.

Bulldogs' hero Marcus Bontempelli got more selfies than all of them.

But going unnoticed, simply going about business as usual in the walking ring, for over an hour before the big race, was that big strapping gelding with a manic history of self-destruction, patched up, the story well told and shared by now. Basically, he’s had more issues than Reader’s Digest.

But this is a timeless ritual - mums and dads, kids, influencers, socialites, punters and pests can peer across the fence and wonder what’s the real story as a man and his horse walk and walk, lap after lap.

Baraqiel’s minder, Mungur Akash, a one-time accountant from Mauritius - (just adds to the story doesn't it, especially with a name like that) - was shuffling more miles than Cliffy Young, and he’s some tale himself. 

“I’d advertised for a job (at Malua Racing), and this bloke rang up,” said winning co-trainer Troy Corstens amid the post-race pandemonium.

“He ran an accounting firm back in Mauritius, had about 30 people working under him and said he just wanted to become a horse trainer.

“He was coming to Australia, and this was the first job he had seen, and he rang and asked if he could come and see me. I said I would be down at the stables in half an hour, and he was there in 20 minutes.”

“He knew nothing about horses, he couldn’t even pick up the shit, but he really wanted to learn. He could run the place today. He’s such a beautiful person.

“He’s been there two years, he’ll stay for another couple and go back home to Mauritius and be a horse trainer, just amazing isn’t it,” Corstens said.

Mungur Akash and Baraqiel - courtesy Racing Photos

Baraqiel, the name translates as Lightning of God, is some amazing tale himself, but Corstens was amazed how confident and comfortable he was going into the Moir despite all the tribulations and cliff hanging throughout a chequered career to date.

His normal pre-race reports to owners' verge on - not just glass half empty - but almost Ripley’s tales of what could possibly go wrong.

Not this Saturday morning one!

“It is big bad Baz day today in the Group One Moir,” beamed Corstens in his attachment.

“Ladies, I hope you’ve got your frocks ready, gentleman I hope you have polished your shoes. I want to be able to see myself in them at the races.” (It was duly noted by one owner at the track that Troy’s brown R M Williams could have done with a buff themselves.)

“In all seriousness he’s unreal this horse. I could sit here and talk about the race shape, but we’ve heard it all week - you don’t need to hear that. - you just need to hear the excitement in my voice.

“Let’s hope we are jumping all over each other after his race today.”

And of course they were, for hours after the race where Corstens is still explaining it. 

Troy Corstens post-race report to Baraqiel owners (courtesy Malua Racing)

“I’ve never been so confident going into a good race in all my life.  I know how hard it is, but I sat there alone looking at the progressive acceptances on Monday night, going through every horse, their positives and negatives and just kept saying - ‘I’ve got the best horse'.

“I had to slap myself this morning because I was just that confident.”

This was a true pay the believers moment, for all those who stuck it out waiting for Baraqiel to get to the track - as a five-year-old, even the Malua staff who not only dealt with all those serious niggles but the “cranky bastard” of a horse, who needs a net over his head when being saddled to stop biting, he has a few victims too, nearly claimed Joe Agresta during the week.

Cranky - well what of the sellouts across the journey even when Malua trained and rehabbed him for free.

A five per cent share in Baraqiel went on-line and sold for $11,000 to Peter and Nick King in May 2024 when he was about to debut, a month later another five went for $14,000 to Christopher White. 

Baraqiel, who started domesticity with Anthony and Sam Freedman, now has won eight of 12 and more than $1.1m.

“He means the world to us,” said Bennett, whose owners includes syndicates with names like Mad Mates, Against The Bias, Brat Racing, Trowel, Barwon Boys and a Ross Haberman, who goes back that far with the orange and black he was in Bennett’s first racehorse - Onehundred Percent (a term Nathan uses quite frequently, hence the name.)

“I bought a package of four horses, and this (Baraqiel) was one of them. Things like Maid Of Iron and Madame Meteor won races, but we were kept being told to be patient. When I saw shares being sold for the sort of money they made, I thought there must be something going on, so we stuck solid.”

Bennett remembers it only two well.

“We had to put up with grumpy owners and we knew we just had to be patient, I didn’t realise how patient I was . We knew we had the horse with the talent and just had to back him. I just sat in the office Thursday and told everyone he would win, I was that cocky,” Bennett said.

But a Group 1 for Baraqiel, is far different from a Group 1 for Bennett stablemate Southport Tycoon, his Group 1 winner of last year’s Manikato Stakes, a looming task for Baraqiel next month.

That was about sealing a multi-million stud deal, Baraqiel, a cobbled together gelding, was all about belief and dues well paid back.

“Ollie (Damien Oliver) trialled him very early on and said he was a good one. It’s just so good for so many people, good for racing, maybe there will be a movie about him one day.