From an unknown Irish sire, he went from winning Derby's back to a sprinter

Mahogany was from the first Australian crop of the Irish sire Last Tycoon (IRE), out of the mare Alshandegha.. Last Tycoon was bred in 1983 at Kilfrush Stud in County Limerick which, among many others, also bred the lavish filly Immortal Verse (Pivotal). During a pointed racing career, Last Tycoon won the 1986 Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Mile for his trainer Robert Collet, and during his time as a stallion from 1987 to 2003, he shuttled to many places, including Australia from 1989 to 2002. He was at Segenhoe Stud plus Arrowfield and Coolmore in Australia. In 1990, when Mahogany was foaled, the Irish stallion was still a virtual unknown. In January 1992, Mahogany was bought for $65,000 as Lot 162. Henry Plumptre secured the colt on behalf of Lloyd Williams. Plumptre was the bloodstock advisor for Williams at the time, and Mahogany was the first horse he bought for Williams, and the only horse they picked up from that 1992 Sale. The Freedmans were easily the best trainers in the 1990s in Australia, and they had incredible attention to detail, so placing the colt in their care was a wise decision.

Mahogany began racing in November 1992 and, through 43 starts, he won 19 races, was placed in a further 12 and won close to $3.7 million in prizemoney. He wasn’t the most decorated or consistent of Australian champions, with Williams conceding that there have been greater horses, but Mahogany was brilliant in his versatility, and that was what set him aside from his peers. As a 3-year-old, he won the Gr.1 VRC Derby and Gr.1 AJC Derby double. When he achieved it in 1993/94, it hadn’t been done since Classic Mission in 1971, some 22 years before. Alongside his Derby wins, the horse won the 1993 Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas, and that made him the first since Tulloch (NZ) in 1957 to achieve that rare treble of wins. (Only Hitotsu would repeat it in 2022)

Mahogany’s 3-year-old season, which earned him Australian Horse of the Year honours in 1994, would have suggested that he was a staying prospect, but this proved largely untrue. From 1994 until his retirement in March 1998, he was one of the nation’s crack sprinters. He was twice a winner of the Gr.1 Lightning Stakes over 1000 metres (1995 and 1997), and he won the Gr.2 Linlithgow Stakes over 1200 metres in 1996. In fact, Mahogany’s spread of stakes wins by his retirement was 1000 metres to 2500 metres. Sandwiched in the middle was the 1995 Gr.1 Cox Plate when, lumping 59kg, the horse was downed a half-head by no less than Octagonal. By many accounts, it was one of Mahogany’s finest efforts because he gave the winner, an outstanding racehorse, a 10.5kg pull in the weights.

Mahogany raced in an era punctuated by such brilliant horses as Octagonal, with some of the other names he ran into being Melbourne Cup winners Jeune and  Saintly, Hall of Famer Schillaci, G1 Newmarket Handicap winner Ruffles and Derby-winner Nothin’ Leica Dane. With all these accomplishments written into the annals, it’s been partly overlooked that Mahogany was a brilliant 2-year-old. He began his career in Group company, running fourth at Sandown in November 1992 in the Gr.3 Merson Cooper Stakes. He was ridden that day by Damien Oliver before jockey Greg Hall became his regular pilot - Hall riding the horse through 16 of his 19 career wins, and 34 of his 43 overall career starts.
Mahogany had four consistent starts in Victoria as a two-year-old before Lee Freedman opted to send him north for Queensland’s winter carnival. At the time, Freedman’s brother Michael did most of the travelling with the horses.

The horse won his first start during that 1993 carnival, and he was then second at Eagle Farm before a pair of Group one wins in the QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes and Castlemaine Stakes (now the Gr.1 JJ Atkins). Michael Freedman had taken a promising juvenile north and made him a star. He was just too colty to begin with, and he had shown good ability so they gelding him and returning him to the track, which was the making of him. Freedman said the penny dropped with Mahogany during that Queensland carnival, which led to the horse clattering through his Guineas-Derby double 3-year-old season.

However, the son of Last Tycoon wasn’t always the easiest of horses and, owing to later inconsistencies and some high-profile defeats, he was labelled ‘sour’ and ‘unreliable’ in the papers. The Freedman operation figured out Mahogany and did well to sustain the horse’s six seasons on the track. They knew he ran best when he was fresh, that his early staying feats were executed on class alone, and that there were few horses that could go with his turn of foot when all the ducks were in a row. Michael Freedman remembers Mahogany as a neat, average-sized gelding. The horse was distinctive for his long, off-set snip down his nose. When he was trained fresh for those shorter courses, he had a really wicked turn of foot and, as a racehorse, that was one of his great attributes, that he could really quicken like only proper, good horses can. However, very few horses in Australian history have begun their careers at the elite end with Derby victories only to rein themselves in to win successive Group one sprints as Mahogany did.

He died in late November 2021. In Mahogany’s honour, Magic Millions has a yearling barn named after him. In Victoria, the annual Mahogany Challenge is a seven-race series for emerging 3-year-old stayers, while the high-roller room of Melbourne's Crown Casino, which Williams previously ran, is also named after him.

RACE RECORD - 43: 19-7-5
EARNINGS - A$3,670,978

Sires' Produce Stakes (1993)
Castlemaine Stakes (1993)
Caulfield Guineas (1993)
VRC Derby (1993)
Australian Guineas (1994)
AJC Derby (1994)
Lightning Stakes (1995, 1997)

Australian Champion Three Year Old (1993-1994)
Australian Horse of the Year(1993-1994)