FABULANTES DOING HIS FAMILY PROUD

By Graham Potter | Thursday, February 19, 2026

The three-time winner Fabulantes will be looking to further enhance the already rich vein of on-going form emanating from horses directly involved in his family tree when he steps out to bid for back-to-back wins at Doomben on Saturday.

The Robert Heathcote trained gelding could not have been more impressive when saluting in a QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1350m at Doomben last time out, when storming home along the rail, coming from last and resolutely making up a seven length deficit in the ho,e straight to snare Ready For Aimee on the line.

Further underlining the merit of that win is that fact that Fabulantes carried 60kg, a full 6kg more than Ready For Amiee who he chased and beat home.

Daniel Moor did the honours superbly in the saddle that day, but, with Fabulantes again being asked to give plenty of weight to all of his rivals (between 4kg and 8.5kg) Heathcote has elected to offset that to some degree by using the 2kg claiming apprentice Jace McMurray this time around over the same track and distance Fabulantes tackled in his last win.

‘We made a couple of mistakes earlier riding him too close to the lead,” admitted Heathcote, “but he is just like his sister Startantes. She used to just get back and come with a strong run, and I think that is what this guy will do too.”

Startantes, who Heathcote referenced, is the jewel in the crown of a family which has kept on producing so many winners to carry the pink and black checked colours of the Robert Heathcote stable over a long period of time.

Startantes won all the way up to the elite level, taking out the Group 1 Tatts Tiara. She also placed in the Group 1 Flight Stakes and the Group 1 Surround Stakes … setting a lofty target for her full brother Fabulantes (Star Turn – Funtantes) to try and emulate.

““He (Fabulantes) has already proved to us that he is a nice horse,” said Heathcote. “We’ll have to wait and see whether or not he can be in the same league as some of his siblings … I mean he has got some pretty good siblings to live up to.”

And there are a lot of them.

Apart from Startantes and Fabulantes, Fabulantes’ dam, Funtantes produced the likes of Ekaterina (eight wins), Ziemba (6 wins), Beautantes (four wins) and Amusesantes (2 wins).

And, in an enduring tale, you can go even further back than that with Funtantes’s dam Cantantes, who won two races for Heathcote as far back as 2002, having her son Excellantes (twelve wins) as the standout on her own honour roll, amongst other winners such as Notre Amour, Khaaptentes, Brilliantes, Kingtantes, Remembering Frank and Alle Vongole.

Fabulantes is only a three-year-old, just ten runs into his career with, all things being equal, many seasons ahead of him.

Even so, he has already added a proud new chapter to the family legacy … and that chapter has yet to be completed.

Fabulantes is currently quoted as the $2.60 favourite for Saturday’s contest with the betting suggesting that Capital Chord ($4.40), who won in comfortable fashion on debut over 1200m at Doomben, could be the main danger to the race favourite.

Quickzou and Wootten Hyde ($6.50) share the next line of betting.

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