English passes the test in Doomben 10,000
Newhaven Park Stud’s English (Encosta de Lago), still racing as a rising six-year-old, is another exception to the rule, the decision to keep her going well justified by her victory in last Saturday’s $700,000 Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) in which she produced a strong finishing sprint to defeat the somewhat unlucky, stud-bound Impending (Lonhro) by a long head with Le Romain (Hard Spun) another half-neck back in third place. Last year’s Doomben 10,000 winner Redzel (Snitzel) was a close up fourth in the top quality field. Race time was 1:09.58 while the time for the last 600 metres, 34.74, was the fastest of the day
Since the late John Kelly established Newhaven Park Stud at Boorowa, NSW, shortly after his return from World War II, the Kelly family have bred and raced many outstanding performers and have stood there a number of influential stallions, by far the most notable being Wilkes (Court Martial), three times champion sire in Australia.
English is a credit to her co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as she has been on the go since early in her two-year-old season when she won the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) before finishing second to Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro) in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), performances which led to her being rated Australia’s champion juvenile filly of 2014/15, a ranking she repeated as a three-year-old.
Winning the 2016 All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), two renewals of the Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) and three other Group One placings have been other highlights of English’s racing career to date and it seems likely she will race on next season with The Everest (1200m) an early and enticing target.
Possibly the last Group One winner for her retired sire Encosta De Lago (Fairy King), English draws attention to the perhaps under appreciated achievements of her father, twice champion sire in Australia (in 2006/07 and 2007/08) and Australia’s leading broodmare sire in 2015/16 and 2016/17, a title he is poised to retain for the third successive season in 2017/18.
Himself a Group One-winning sprinter/miler, Encosta De Lago has been versatile in terms of the winning distances of his progeny and so far has 114 stakes winners to his credit, among them other Group One-winning females Alinghi, Princess Coup, Mnemosyne, Aloha, Lashed and Apercu. Of course, Encosta De Lago’s male offspring have been no less talented, led by the wonderful sprinter Chautauqua and also including Group One winners Delago Brom (sire), Delago Deluxe (sire standing at Newhaven Park), Douro Valley, Manhattan Rain (successful sire), Newport, Northern Meteor (sire), Puccini (at stud in New Zealand), Racing To Win (five Group One wins), Road To Rock (standing in New Zealand), Shadoways, Sirmione, Smokin’ Joey, Titanic Jack and Vanbrugh who begins his stud career in New Zealand this spring.
Northern Meteor looked a champion sire in waiting before his early death at Widden Stud and high hopes are held for Coolmore Australia resident Rubick (Encosta De Lago) whose first crop will race as two-year-olds next season.
Only time will tell if sire sons or broodmare daughters will provide Encosta De Lago’s greatest contribution to breeding in the long term but his mares have already produced 49 Group winners, among them young stallions Divine Prophet (Choisir), Invader (Snitzel) and Impending, not to mention multiple Group One winner Happy Clapper (Teofilo), Mighty Boss (Not A Single Doubt), Japonisme (Choisir) plus a host of others.
English’s dam Court (Anabaa) was a classy performer, her five wins including four black type events up to 1350m and her only other two foals to race, stakes placed Al Naifa (Redoute’s Choice) and Puzzle (Shamardal) are both winners but she has proved hard to get in foal in recent seasons although it appears she is expecting an early foal by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) this spring.
Both Court and her dam Splish (Zeditave) are products of Newhaven Park with Splish’s dam La Papaya (Alleged) an import from the United States but a member of a very successful European family.
La Papaya is a half-sister to Grand Lodge (Chief’s Crown), one of Europe’s leading two-year-olds of 1993, a dual Group One winner and later a very successful sire shuttling to Woodlands Stud in NSW when the property was in the Ingham ownership.
In Australia Grand Lodge left Group One winners Freemason, Grand Zulu, Hotel Grand (sire), Shogun Lodge, Lovelorn and Ambulance while in the Northern Hemisphere his Group One winners were Grand Courier (in the United States), Grandera (sire), Indian Lodge, Queen’s Logic and Sinndar (successful sire), winner of The Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f) and the Irish Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f). Grand Lodge also made a mark as a maternal grandsire.
Magic Flute (Tudor Melody), fifth dam of English, won the Cheveley Park Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) as a two-year-old and the Coronation Stakes (then Gr 2, 1m) at Royal Ascot as a three-year-old before going on to breed six winners, among them stakes winner Eagling (Nureyev) who spent time as a sire in South Australia. Several of her daughters became good producers of winners, one being the non-winner Early Song (Precocious), dam in Australia of Fine Society (Marscay), winner of the 1993 Canterbury Guineas (Gr 1, 1900m).