The horse was an out-and-out flyer and retained his dash over a long career

San Domenico was a true great of the turf in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. He was iconic and went from being a racing Idol to a bushwacker, featuring in news headlines in his glory days on the track and again when times were not so good. San Domenico was bred by glass industrialist W.J. ‘Knockout’ Smith at St Aubin's Stud, Scone. Sire, Hua (AUS) won the 1937 VRC Derby, 1938 MVRC William Reid Stakes and 1938 VRC St Leger. His Grandsire was champion Heroic, the leading sire in Australia between 1933 and 1939. Dam, Arpina (GB) was lightly raced and won a Mornington Maiden Plate.

San Domenico raced in the post war years between 1948 and 1954 as a specialist weight carrying sprinter and the winner of 8 Group one races in the modern era, including the 1949 VATC Oakleigh Plate,1950 AJC George Main Stakes, 1952 AJC All Aged Stakes and the 1952 VATC Futurity Stakes carrying 65.5 kg, defeating Grey Boots, 1950 AJC Doncaster Handicap and 1950 VATC Caulfield Cup. Race results show that in 1954 he started at odds of 25/1 in a Flying Handicap at Orange, west of the Blue Mountains and ran unplaced on a heavy track. It was an ignominious finish for a great racehorse. Four years earlier, San Domenico’s runaway victory on a heavy track in the STC Winter Handicap at Rosehill was spoken of by racing folk as one of the great wins of its time. At Rosehill San Domenico carried over 62kgs and ploughed through heavy going, such a slog that he ran the sprint 12.5s outside of Shannon’s track record. His triumph that day was likened to a warrior's heroic success in battle. He set an Australasian record for prizemoney won on a racetrack, but he certainly did it tough as an older horse running on the country circuit.

San Domenico won a total of 25 races, 21 of them on metropolitan tracks, mostly at 1200m and 1400m. With a record like that, San Domenico deserved so much better than to be pushed around bush race meetings in the twilight of his career. San Domenico raced nine times for one victory at Sydney's Canterbury track in his final year on the racetrack and after surpassing the stakes record, despite failing in the bush, he was thankfully retired to spend his final days resting in a lush NSW country paddock.

Ray Formosa, owner-trainer and arrant tax defaulter from Kogarah, Sydney, purchased San Domenico for 1000 guineas and refused an offer of 4000 guineas from breeder W.J.Smith prior to San Domenico racing, and 8000 guineas from other sources after his first win at Randwick. Formosa was granted a training licence in 1948 after the Hobartville Stakes win, with the original trainer N.R.O'Brien becoming stable foreman. In 1949 Formosa purchased the Moorefield Sydney stables of the late Jack Cush - major winners being Journal 1934 VATC Caulfield Cup, Reading 1939 AJC Derby, VRC Victoria Derby, 1940 AJC St Leger and VRC St Leger. San Domenico was later sold in 1951 for 3500 guineas to wealthy Wilcannia grazier George Goodwin and then trained by Bill Kearns. It was with Kearns that San Domenico won his last three important races including the 55th Futurity Stakes, at Caulfield with more than 65kg. San Domenico's racing record for a horse that contested so many elite races over such a prolonged career was exceptional.

Record - 79: 25-10-8

Earnings - £30,839

Hobartville Stakes (1948)

C.W.Cropper Handicap (1949)

Challenge Stakes (1949, 1950)

Oakleigh Plate (1949)

Frederick Clissold Handicap (1950)

George Main Stakes (1950)

Warwick Stakes (1950, 1951)

Canterbury Stakes (1950, 1951)

Hill Stakes (1951)

C.M.Lloyd Stakes (1951)

Futurity Stakes (1952)

All Aged Stakes (1952)