Australia’s top two-year-old sires lock horns in the south
Kuroyanagi and Arabian Summer to clash in Morphettville’s Lightning Stakes
Australia’s top two juvenile sires of this season will go on show via two of their best two-year-old fillies in the penultimate black-type race of 2023-24, as clear favourites Kuroyanagi (Written Tycoon) and Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) clash in Saturday’s Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m) at Morphettville.
Yulong’s fee-on-arrangement 21-year-old Written Tycoon (Iglesia) is about to win his second two-year-old sires’ title, eight years after his first, with Kuroyanagi having emerged as one of his latest stars after her last-start third in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in February.
Thanks mainly to the earnings of another filly who ran second that day before taking the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) – Lady Of Camelot – Written Tycoon holds an unassailable lead of $828,000 over Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) on the juvenile sires’ table. Written Tycoon also leads comfortably by winners, with 17 to the 14 of second-ranked Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
Too Darn Hot has exploded onto the Australian scene, making it harder to swallow for his quickly-growing band of fans here that he won’t be shuttling again from Britain this spring.
The eight-year-old’s Darley-Watership Down owners will no doubt be more than content to see him take the Australian first-season sires’ title, a race he leads comfortably on earnings, and clearly by winners, with 12 to the second-best of ten shared by Tassort (Brazen Beau) and Zousain (Zoustar).
While Too Darn Hot’s highest earner is easily the budding Godolphin superstar and dual Group 1 winner Broadsiding, Arabian Summer ranks second, with three wins from six starts and $943,600.
The Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea–trained Kuroyanagi, and Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s Arabian Summer, are two most exciting fillies who earned marks of distinction at their yearlings sales.
Kuroyanagi was Written Tycoon’s second-top lot and the 17th-highest overall at Inglis Premier, with Clarken and owner Santo Guagliardo of Western Australia’s Ridgeport Farm paying breeders Yarraman Park and Jullian Sullivan $390,000 for the filly.
Arabian Summer had to be fetched out of Book 2 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Selling as Lot 1167, the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum-bred filly was bought from the Coolmore draft by McEvoy Mitchell Racing and Belmont Bloodstock for $220,000, making her the third-top lot of the second session.
The Lightning is one of three stakes races on the last Saturday of the season, lying between Caulfield’s Bletchingly Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and Belmont’s HG Bolton Sprint (Listed, 1200m).
So often a tantalising late-season contest for two and three-year-olds – such as when an emerging Nature Strip (Nicconi) beat the McEvoys’ Sunlight (Zoustar) by six lengths in 2018 – the Lightning has again lived up to that reputation in drawing a quality 16-horse field.
With Morphettville a Soft 7 on Friday, and a chance of showers forecast for Saturday, bookmakers had Kuroyanagi favourite at around $2.80, with Arabian Summer $3.90.
Clarken and O’Shea also have $7.50 chance Hajra (Zoustar), another owned by Guagliardo. As a winner already this season, the three-year-old filly can’t further help Zoustar’s push to better I Am Invincible’s (Invincible Spirit) Australian record for winners in a season, but can extend his tearaway lead for wins.
Widden’s Zoustar had 206 victors by Friday, two behind Vinnie’s record with six racing days left in the season, while his 360 wins was a gaping 73 more than his Yarraman rival’s second-ranking 287.
Still, having taken three of her past four starts, the past two of those in city grade, Hajra could be the main spoiler against the two keenly fancied two-year-old fillies.
Richard and Chantelle Jolly’s three-year-old Aviatress (Smart Missile) was a $6.50 third-favourite, after her past three starts featured an Adelaide Benchmark 68 (1100m) win and a fourth and a fifth at Group 3 level at Flemington and Morphettville.
And, in a market dominated by fillies, Calvin McEvoy made special mention of the Tom Dabernig-trained three-year-old Whistlefield (Deep Field), an $11 hope after claiming three of her past five races, including last start in a 1000-metre three-year-old event at Caulfield by two lengths.
Befitting her sale price, Clarken feels Kuranoyagi could become the best runner he or Guagliardo have had, which makes a long list. The pair raced the Group 2-winning and Group 1-placed Beau Rossa (Unencumbered), while Guagliardo celebrated his first top-tier success last November when the Neville Parnham-trained Bustler (Playing God) took Ascot’s Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Kuranoyagi excelled in a brief first preparation despite being a late bloomer. On debut in January she strolled to victory in an 1100-metre two-year-old event at Gawler, beating into second the gelding Colmar (Strasbourg), who won last Saturday’s SAJC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) by 5.8 lengths.
Stepped up steeply in class, Kuroyanagi was then beaten only a nose in the fillies’ Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 2, 1100m) behind the outstanding Hayasugi (Royal Meeting), before finishing a brave 1.2 lengths third behind that same rival in the main event.
“She was actually feeling the prep before her first start,” Clarken explained of Kuroyanagi’s three-run campaign. “She toughed the other two out very well. But she was still physically quite behind the others at that stage, so we spelled her straight away.
“She’s come back a bigger, stronger horse now, and skeletally she’s ready to go on with it.
“At this stage, we don’t know what her ceiling is – she’s completely untapped – but hopefully she can turn out to be the best horse Santo has had.
“She does everything well without blowing your hair back. We’ve got high expectations but we’ll know so much more after Saturday.”
Clarken said Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in mid-November could be Kuranoyagi’s long-range target, while Flemington’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) could be included on the way.
“She’s coming up really well, though she’s going into Saturday a bit underdone,” the Murray Bridge-based trainer told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She’s had a good spell of about eight weeks, and we’ve prepped her up slowly. We’ve had a bit of a grass restriction, so she hasn’t had a lot of high-end galloping, but she’s so naturally athletic, we think she’s ready to go to the races.
“The spring is long, and we’ve got very little idea of what she actually is at the moment. I suspect she’ll get a bit further, hence the Thousand Guineas could be on the radar.
“You’ve love to think she’s up to a Coolmore, and that does sit lovely for her in terms of timing. We’ll get through Saturday, and if she wins and wins comfortably, then we could go there.”
Team McEvoy are confident they have Arabian Summer primed for a bold first-up run.
The daughter of the city-winning Maraam (Street Cry) has stood out from day one as being among Too Darn Hot’s finest. She debuted with a second to subsequent Blue Diamond favourite Coleman (Pierata) in Caulfield’s Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and followed that up with a third placing in Flemington’s Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).
Arabian Summer then blitzed her rivals in Ballarat’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1000m) and the Gold Coast’s fillies’ Magic Millions lead-up, the Gold Pearl (1100m), before running fifth to Storm Boy (Justify) in the main event a week later.
She remained in Queensland spelling before, virtually as an afterthought, she was entered in the inaugural $1 million Magic Millions Classic (1050m), transferred to a shifting Doomben track from an unraceable Gold Coast, on May 25. And though she drifted from $7 to $12, she showed her class again by making it three wins from six outings.
Arabian Summer returned to the paddock after that run, and while she enjoyed only a brief spell, Calvin McEvoy says she’s in fine order for another first-up assignment on Saturday.
“She’s going super, she hasn’t missed a beat,” he said. “We’re very pleased with her, and her fitness is good.
“She spent quite a bit of time in Queensland, so she doesn’t look like she’s in the middle of winter, coat-wise. She’s proven very effective fresh, and is proven on different sorts of ground, so I’m keen on her going into Saturday.
“It’s a race that’s not easy to win. You’ve got horses who’ve either raced through the winter and have that fitness, or others going first-up to go into the spring. But we’re feeling pretty confident.”
McEvoy said Caulfield’s Quezette Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) would be Arabian Summer’s likely next target, while top-level sprints including Moonee Valley’s Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) and the Coolmore Stud Stakes were later possibilities.
Clarken, meanwhile, cautioned punters not to forget Hajra, who was bought cheaply online last December after four non-winning runs in NSW for Team Snowden, and has since won three from four in South Australia.
“She’s out of a half-sister to (quadruple Group 1 winner) Sepoy. We picked her up online for $50,000 after she had a few starts around Sydney,” Clarken said. “We bought her hoping to win a maiden, but now she’s won three races and her last win was serious, so it looks like she’ll get to stakes grade.
“If she can get black type next to her name it’d be a real kill for Santo.”