Bivouac and Queen dominant as Aegon emerges
Third Group 1 win each for Darley and Mackinnon winners while son of Sacred Falls stars at Riccarton
Glen Boss believes that Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) may be as good as any colt he has been associated with during his long career after the four-year-old produced the best win of his career yesterday, taking the aptly-named Darley Sprint Classic (Gr 1, 1200m) by more than three lengths in a breathtaking display and putting international targets firmly on the radar.
The 51-year-old rider is well-placed to judge the merits of a future stallion having scored big-race wins on subsequent Group 1 producers like Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), Choisir (Danehill Dancer), Starcraft (Soviet Star), Sebring (More Than Ready), Ocean Park (Thorn Park) and Kermadec (Teofilo).
He also partnered Bivouac’s early sparring partner Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) to win The Everest (1200m) last year.
Boss has now had three rides on the James Cummings-trained Bivouac (4 h Exceed And Excel – Dazzler by More Than Ready) for two wins, having also been aboard when he bounded away to win the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) in March.
After the Godolphin homebred exploded clear to defeat reigning Australian Horse of the Year Nature Strip (Nicconi) and classy mare Libertini (I Am Invincible), Boss – who rode his 88th Group 1 winner yesterday – suggested he belonged in that elite group of colts he has ridden.
“I’m very privileged to be sitting on this very good colt. Everyone knows how many good colts I’ve been associated with in my career and this one is right up there with them, I’ll tell you. He’s a very special animal,” he said.
“Every Group 1 is sweet, but when I get on these colts, it makes it even better. It’s something I love to do. I’ve ridden some of the best colts in Australia over the last 20 years; even going back through Snitzel and Fastnet Rock, they’re all at stud and they’re the best ones.
“He’s got form around Yes Yes Yes who is arguably one of the best colts I’ve ever ridden in my life. They’ve got the form. He’s beaten Yes Yes Yes and those types of horses. He’s a dominant colt. He’s got everything that good colts have.
“He’s just a very unique animal. He’s got a great demeanour, he takes everything in his stride. He’s such an athlete. You don’t see them win a Newmarket and a Darley Classic like that. They’re good horses. There’s a Horse of the Year right beside him and he went straight past and said, ‘See you later, boys’.
“I’m getting towards the pointy end of my career, but to be here at Flemington and win a race over the four days, is extraordinary.”
Bivouac (second), Nature Strip (seventh) and Libertini (eighth), along with Darley seventh Tofane (Ocean Park) (ninth) and yesterday’s ninth Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega) (sixth), all came out of the $15 million The Everest behind Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt).
Classique Legend is in quarantine at Werribee, bound for the Caspar Fownes stable at Sha Tin and next month’s Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m), leaving vacant the mantle of Australia’s leading sprinter.
It was a title that Bivouac could rightly claim after his runner-up finish in The Everest and, after yesterday’s performance, he is likely to challenge Classique Legend for the world’s best sprinter title in this year’s World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.
“He was the best horse in the race with the best form at the moment,” Boss said. “He was in a high-rating Everest – it was an outstanding Everest this year – and then he’s come here third-up with the right form. It was hard to ignore him, really.
“When you see them winning Newmarkets like he did, it is very hard to ignore that sort of form and you know he’s got everything that is lined up for him.
“You can look back through his stats, he’s got great form all the way and when he’s got beaten, there’s been excuses, it hasn’t been his day, but when it goes together, he can beat world class horses.
“They’re good horses and he made them look like handicappers.”
Godolphin chief Vin Cox said that it was likely that Bivouac would join his sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill) on the Darley roster in 2021, but that international targets like the Al Quoz Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) in Dubai and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) at Royal Ascot could be on the horizon, particularly now that he is building a handy record down the Flemington straight.
“He’s a four-year-old now, the intent all along was to probably retire him next year and, standing here today, that is probably our ambition,” Cox said. “There’s every chance he might end up in the northern hemisphere at Royal Ascot. Obviously, he likes the straight course and they’ve got some nice sprints down the straight there.
“It adds another string to his bow as a stallion proposition if he can win a Group 1 race in the northern hemisphere. It allows that opportunity to stand him up there and to expose his talents.”
Bivouac became just the third colt by Darley flagbearer Exceed And Excel to win three Group 1 races, joining Excelebration and Helmet, and he shapes as the most likely to succeed his 20-year-old sire.
“To win a Group 1 race with a colt by one of our own stallions in Exceed And Excel, it is pretty exciting,” Cox said. “When you sponsor these races, you hope you’re going to have a nice prospect for it. To do it in the way he did, as dominant and as electric as he was, it’s just fantastic. These Group 1 sprints at Flemington, you don’t win them like that, and it gives us a great platform to be able to promote him as a stallion prospect going forward.
“He’s by the most commercial stallion we stand at our studs from a family that we’ve had for generations. Every site and part of our operation has had their fingerprints on him at some point. It just gives everyone a lift.”
Three-time Group 1 winner Bivouac, who also took the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) last September, has now won seven of his 19 starts and has earned $5,567,860.
He is out of the More Than Ready (Southern Halo) mare Dazzler, who has also produced another stakes winner this spring in two-time Listed victor Coruscate (Exceed And Excel).
Both Bivouac and Coruscate are three-quarter brothers to champion filly Guelph (Exceed And Excel), who is out of the pair’s second dam, Group 1 winner Camarilla (Elusive Quality).
Third dam Camarena (Danehill) won the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), while it is also the family of Group 1-winning brother and sister Canny Lad (Bletchingly) and Canny Lass as well as another Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) hero in Sepoy (Elusive Quality).
Dazzler has an unraced two-year-old Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) filly named Glittery, as well as a Lonhro (Octagonal) yearling colt and an Exceed And Excel filly, who was foaled on September 19.
Perth mare the Mackinnon Queen
It may have taken time for Arcadia Queen (5 m Pierro – Arcadia by Redoute’s Choice) to find her best this spring, but the Perth visitor saved her best for last with an emphatic victory in the Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington yesterday.
Partnered by Luke Currie with regular rider William Pike in quarantine in Western Australia ahead of the Perth carnival, Arcadia Queen swept home as favourite to defeat Australian Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) hero Fifty Stars (Sea The Stars) with 12-time Group 1 winner Melody Belle (Commands) third.
Trained by Grant and Alana Williams for prominent Perth owner Bob Peters, Arcadia Queen scored her second Group 1 of the spring and her third in total yesterday.
She won the Kingston Town Classic (Gr 1, 1800m) as a three-year-old filly in 2018, while two starts back, she caused an upset in the Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
However, it looked unlikely that she would find her best this spring after she was beaten in her first three runs, finishing fifth in the P. B. Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), second in the Let’s Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and third in the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m). She also struck trouble when fifth in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
“We had some issues but credit to the horse, she just keeps pushing on,” Grant Williams said. “It’s a great way to cap it off. After the year she has had, to win two Group 1s here; if you’d said that we could have two Group 1s, we’d take that every day.”
With yesterday’s win, Arcadia Queen took her record to eight wins from 15 starts with prize-money of $3,901,035.
Arcadia Queen has two unraced sisters of racing age, three-year-old Arcadia Princess (Domesday) – listed as retired through Racing Australia – and two-year-old Arcadia Gem (Domesday), currently spelling.
Arcadia has a yearling sister to Arcadia Queen, while she foaled another Pierro (Lonhro) – this time a colt – on October 5.
There was drama pre-race as Mugatoo (Henrythenavigator) was a late scratching, having injured himself in the float on the way to Flemington. Owners Australian Bloodstock reported the horse to be largely unscathed.
Professional Aegon remains unbeaten in Guineas
It may not have been pretty or flashy, but Aegon’s tough, determined and professional victory in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) yesterday – emulating the success of his sire Sacred Falls (O’Reilly) – stamped the gelding as one of the most exciting three-year-olds on either side of the Tasman.
The Riccarton feature has been won by the likes of Jimmy Choux (Thorn Park), Rock ‘n’ Pop (Fastnet Rock), Turn Me Loose (Iffraaj), Xtravagant (Pentire), Embellish (Savabeel), Madison County (Pins) and Catalyst (Darci Brahma) in the last decade, in addition to Sacred Falls.
Many of these have been flamboyant wins by a big space, but that was not the case for the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Aegon (3 g Sacred Falls – Toss Up by Zabeel), whose triumph by a nose was the smallest winning margin since his own sire’s head success in 2012.
But while Aegon only just managed to edge out Bourbonaire (Darci Brahma) – who he had also relegated into second in the Hawke’s Bay Guineas (Gr 2, 1400m) the start before – he is perhaps one of the more promising winners the race has produced.
Ridden by Leith Innes, Aegon shaped like a 60-start veteran rather than an inexperienced gelding with only two starts under his belt, having won a Taupo maiden over 1300 metres in August, before flashing home to take out the Hawke’s Bay Guineas last month.
In a messy race from the get-go, the pace steadied twice early as Embers (Darci Brahma) and then Need I Say More (No Nay Never) dropped anchor out in front.
Most runners showed some sign of the slackened tempo: tossing their heads about, dropping the bit, proving difficult to restrain. Perhaps that is what made Aegon stand out early as, despite his position near the rear, he took it all in his stride, unfazed and relaxed.
Ridden up to maintain his position approaching the dog-leg turn at the top of the long Riccarton straight, he was short of room and surrounded by horses with few options to get into the clear. It was made worse as Bourbonaire was forced onto Aegon by a weakening Zoltan (Iffraaj), creating a momentum-halting scrimmage that would have stopped many horses.
Both Aegon and Bourbonaire were all heart, though, as they came clear to fight out the finish. Nose for nose, stride for stride they battled on and, as they hit the line, Forsman – who shares in the ownership with the Zame family – was unsure which way the photo had gone.
“I didn’t know whether he had won or not, so it’s just starting to sink in,” he said in the immediate aftermath of the race. “They were going so slowly in front and he was in a tricky spot so I was worried but Leith had a lot of confidence in him.
“It’s pretty special and really hasn’t hit home yet but I’m just rapt to race the horse with a great bunch of people. It’s been a great ride the whole way through.”
A nose separated Aegon and Bourbonaire, with Marine (Ocean Park) a length and a quarter away in third.
For Innes, it was a special victory as he had also partnered dual Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Sacred Falls throughout his New Zealand career, before he joined Chris Waller in Sydney. That included Sacred Falls’ Guineas success.
“I thought he had his head down at the right time but he carries his head low anyway so that probably helped him,” Innes said.
“It’s just amazing that eight years ago I won the race on Sacred Falls and today I could do it on a horse that is pretty similar in nature. They both aren’t very big but they put in 100 per cent and they know where the line is.”
Aegon, who races in the same colours as Zame-owned Jon Snow (Iffraaj), is the first Group 1 winner for Sacred Falls, who served five seasons at Waikato Stud before his untimely death last year.
It was the culmination of a big week for the late stallion – Icebath and All Saints’ Eve finished second and fourth in the AUD$7.5 million Golden Eagle (1500m) last Saturday, Salto Angel staked her claim as Australia’s best maiden after finishing second in the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) on Thursday and Tommy Gold finished second in The Amanda Elliott (Listed, 1400m) at Flemington yesterday.
Aegon, who was purchased by Forsman for NZ$150,000 at this year’s NZB Premier Yearling Sale at Karaka, is the fourth foal to race out of the mare Toss Up (Zabeel); all four have been winners, but he is the first black-type performer.
While Aegon is the first stakes winner in two generations, third dam Head Of The River (Shirley Heights) is the matriarch of a family that includes Group 1 performers Good Faith (Straight Strike), Daffodil (No Excuse Needed) and Believe Yourself (Sebring), as well as Singapore’s champion older horse last year What’s New (Casino Prince).
Aegon, who is likely to target the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) or the Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in the autumn, took his earnings to NZ$329,400 with yesterday’s victory.
Sneaky Five into Slipper after Gift
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have had tremendous success already with their two-year-olds, including Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Enthaar (Written Tycoon) and Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) heroine Fake Love (I Am Invincible).
Yesterday, another of their early season winners, Sneaky Five (2 f Fastnet Rock – Small Minds by Canny Lad), became the first horse to confirm her place in the Golden Slipper Stakes with her victory in the $1 million Golden Gift (1100m) at Rosehill.
Winner of the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m) at Moonee Valley on debut, Sneaky Five’s long neck victory yesterday under Regan Bayliss took the Rosemont Stud-owned filly to two from two with prize-money of $883,000.
While the Inglis portion of her earnings is ineligible for Golden Slipper purposes, her $581,000 winners’ cheque yesterday will see her atop the initial ballot order when it is released early next year.
“That’s the big thing and the appeal of this race,” said Jack Bruce, Sydney representative for Maher and Eustace. “It gets you a ticket into the Slipper. It guarantees you that start. It is all important and you can sit back now and plot a flight path to the big one.
“It’s a great result for Rosemont Stud too. They are big investors in our industry; it’s very, very exciting.”
With a berth in the Golden Slipper secure, Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen said yesterday that the $2 million Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) could be a target for the filly. For the first time this season, $69,500 of the winner’s cheque from the Inglis Millennium will count towards qualification for the Slipper – although Mithen is in the luxurious position of not having to worry about boosting her qualifying earnings.
“It’s very much a temptation now to have a crack at the Millennium given the prize-money on offer,’’ Mithen said.
“She ticked a few boxes there today in showing us she handles the Sydney way of going and she handles a wet track so there’s a serious chance we’ll go for the Millennium as the first target and then obviously the Slipper.
“When you consider she’s out of an Oaks winner, she’s got plenty of upside you’d think and to be honest, we probably bought her to be a mile style of filly who might get out to an Oaks trip herself, so this is all very exciting to be doing what she’s doing this early and over the shorter trips.’’
Bayliss was impressed with the victory, in which Sneaky Five defeated Cerda (Snitzel) by a long neck with Mura Mura (Not A Single Doubt) a length and a quarter away in third.
“She was on her right leg from the get go so she was very professional,” he said. “I sat in behind Mura Mura and she switched off lovely for me. She showed good tenacity, she had to bump Nash’s horse (Ghostwriter) out of the way and get balanced again.
“She was good right through the line and she pricked her ears when she got to the front as well so there is a bit of upside to her.”
Offered by Goldin Farms at this year’s Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, Sneaky Five was purchased by Rosemont Stud for $305,000.
Sneaky Five is the third foal to race out of Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Small Minds (Canny Lad), who also produced Jungle Dawn Classic (Listed, 1400m) winner Beautiful Mind (So You Think).