Bittercreek produces Classic performance at Doomben
On Friday, Victorian buyer Dean Harvey and trainer Troy Corstens expressed hope they’d be repaid for hanging onto their colt Bittercreek (Snitzel) by perhaps seeing him win a Group race later in the Brisbane carnival.
On Saturday, the two-year-old paid them back early – and suggested there’d be more rewards to come – with a scintillating win in the Spirit Of Boom Classic (registered as Champagne Classic) (Gr 2, 1200m) at Doomben.
Harvey of Baystone Farm, and Corstens of Malua Racing, went out of their comfort zone to pay $375,000 for the Belinda Bateman-bred Bittercreek from Arrowfield’s draft at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
As is their common practice, they entered him into the Magic Millions 2YO In Training Sale last October, after a third in a Flemington jump-out. Since he was a promising half-brother to expensive Group-winning Fastnet Rock (Danehill) brothers Siege Of Quebec and Bull Point, they set a hefty reserve of $750,000.
While the bidding came close, at $700,000, Harvey and Corstens stuck fast to their reserve. After the colt’s debut third in the Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) and subsequent second in Moonee Valley’s Pearl Stakes (Listed, 1200m), Saturday’s victory emphatically showed they pulled the right rein.
Considered possibly better over longer and on a more roomy track, the long-striding Bittercreek was slightly easy in betting, starting at $11, while most money came for Clinton McDonald’s second-starter Angel Capital (Harry Angel), the $3 favourite, and Kelly Schweida’s El Morzillo (Star Witness), at $4.40. But in the event, Bittercreek looked the winner before the home turn.
Taken back to fifth, one off the fence, by Blake Shinn, he was the widest runner around the turn but full of running. While it took him a good 100 metres to balance and fully find his stride, once he did he charged after leader President (I Am Invincible) over the final 200 metres. He claimed the lead at the 50 metres, and had half a length on the fast-finishing El Morzillo at the end.
President took third money, while Angel Capital gave too large a start, but was disappointing nonetheless, in fifth.
Corstens told ANZ Bloodstock News on Friday that 1200 metres around the tight-ish Doomben might not best suit the sizeable Bittercreek, who was up against some vaunted colts and fillies in the ten-horse field yesterday.
That now sounds an ominous warning for his rivals when he takes to the more spacious Eagle Farm for his main targets – the $1 million BRC Sires Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) on June 1, and the JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) on June 15.
New owners came into the colt after his debut, most notably Rupert Legh, whose colours the colt now bears, but Corstens and Harvey went into Saturday still owning sizeable shares in the son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
Victory in the JJ Atkins particularly would be a large help in Harvey’s stated goal of “selling out for far more than we paid” in a stallion deal for Bittercreek, who became four-time Australian champion sire Snitzel’s second stakes winner on Saturday and 144th overall.
“We came here thinking the 1200 [metres] might be a bit short as he’d want to stretch out. But he’s a good horse still working it out, and he put it all together today [Saturday],” stable representative Will Larkin said.
“He’s got a great pedigree. He’s a half to a couple of Group 1-placed horses, and a colt. So, it is good to get these things on the way through with bigger things to come.”
“He’s a beautiful horse. I’m just delighted for Troy and the team.
“He is quite valuable. He’s got a great page on him, and to get that stakes win, hopefully, we’re going on to bigger things starting today [Saturday].”
Shinn, who’d ridden Bittercreek in an early jump-out, agreed the colt would be even more formidable over longer trips.
“I was very confident that this horse was smart,” Shinn said. “I jumped him out prior to his first start and I had quite an opinion of him. He’s run well both times, he’s got a great character about him, great physical.
“The bloodlines are there, he’s got Criterion on his page and I always thought he’d be a nice three-year-old miler, so to do what he is doing now are only good signs for the future.
“He’s such a placid horse. No doubt he’ll be better when he gets to 1400 and a mile.”
Bittercreek (2 c Snitzel – Rose Of Cimmaron by Bite The Bullet) is now the third stakes-winner from six to race for Rose Of Cimmaron (Bite The Bullet) after Group 3 victors Siege Of Quebec and Bull Point.
A sister to the dam of top-tier heroes Criterion (Sebring) and Comin’ Through (Fastnet Rock), the 19-year-old Rose Of Cimmaron hasn’t thrown a foal since Bittercreek, after three visits to Capitalist (Written Tycoon). She missed in 2021, had a foal who died after birth last year, and was covered again by the Newgate Stud-based sire last spring.