FAMILY TIES
Go Bloodstock’s Lady Of Camelot will be hoping it’s third time lucky for Miss Debutante in this weekend’s Golden Slipper
When Go Bloodstock’s Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) takes her place alongside the best juveniles in Australia in this weekend’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill she will write another chapter of Miss Debutante’s (Fastnet Rock) already extraordinary feats as a broodmare.
The daughter of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) was bought by Paul Moroney on behalf of Sir Owen Glenn from the Kia Ora Stud draft for $430,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2015 and then sent into training with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, who also train her Slipper-bound daughter.
Lady Of Camelot is her third foal and the third foal to race in the Golden Slipper – which is quite impressive
After winning four races, headlined by her triumph in Scone’s Denise Joy Stakes (Listed, 1100m), Miss Debutante was retired to join her owner’s elite broodmare band and in a relatively short period of time, she has already made her mark in the breeding shed.
Indeed, Lady Of Camelot’s win in February’s Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) made her the third of the mare’s progeny, from as many to race, to have won at stakes level, following on from the feats of dual Group 3-winning half-sister Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible), who also landed the Widden, and another half-sister Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar), winner of the 2022 edition of the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m).
With Lady Of Camelot’s participation in the Rosehill feature on Saturday she will also follow in the footsteps of those half-siblings, who both also proved precocious and high-class enough to take their chance in the richest juvenile contest in the world.
“It’s been a bit of an amazing story with the mother, Miss Debutante, a mare that Sir Owen raced and was a stakes winner for him. Lady Of Camelot is her third foal and the third foal to race in the Golden Slipper – which is quite impressive,” Steve O’Connor, director of Go Bloodstock, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
While both failed to make the frame in the Rosehill feature, with Queen Of The Ball finishing eighth in 2022 and Platinum Jubilee coming home 12th in last year’s renewal, neither entered the 1200-metre contest with a record as high-class as Lady Of Camelot.
The daughter of Written Tycoon (Iglesia) finished fourth behind Manaal (Tassort) in September’s Gimcrack Stakes after which she was sent for a spell. Returning in February, the filly reversed the form with Manaal in the Widden Stakes, and then followed up with an impressive second-placed finish behind Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) in last month’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) at Caulfield.
Lady Of Camelot (pictured below) will jump from barrier five this weekend and will once again clash with Manaal and Hayasugi on Saturday, who are two rivals amongst a full field on 16.
“Lady Of Camelot is probably the best of the bunch [out of Miss Debutante] so far because she’s not only won a Group race, but is Group 1-placed and she looks a live chance this weekend,” O’Connor said.
“It’s great to see Sir Owen get some recognition from the mares that he’s bought, the matings he’s managed and what they’ve achieved at what we hope can be at the highest level. Seeing his silks competing at this level is very much what he wants to achieve.
“We want to highlight what kind of level the broodmare band is at and she’s [Lady Of Camelot] is a great advertisement for that and hopefully there’s plenty of racing ahead of her, even after the Slipper.”
Apart from a 800-metre trial under Blake Shinn at Hawkesbury on March 11, which she won easily, Lady Of Camelot has not been sighted since her Blue Diamond appearance and O’Connor believes she has benefited from the run and goes into the Slipper ‘a bigger and stronger’ filly.
“We took her to Melbourne and we were thinking ‘it’s hard for a horse to run in both’ [Blue Diamond and Slipper], but it’s been the making of her. She’s come back a stronger filly mentally and physically and she showed that in her trial.
“She also showed in her trial that she has the versatility, that if something does want to lead at a hell-break pace, she can sit off of them and explode. We think she is at her peak. She’s coming for her third run of the autumn, the Melbourne trip has hardened her and given her the experience and we think she is going great guns.”
Her win in the Widden Stakes, meant Lady Of Camelot was sent off $4.40 chance in the Blue Diamond and, while the performance may have taken a few by surprise, the Go Bloodstock camp were always confident she would show up and make her presence felt, which is something they hope will continue the weekend.
“After she won the Widden Stakes, which was a race that rated very highly, she would run well [in Melbourne], but she exceeded our expectations,” said O’Connor.
“We thought she was a fast ground filly and so knowing that it can get wet this time of year in Sydney, which it hasn’t, and subsequently we took her down to Melbourne knowing that she was rock hard fit and in-form and wanted to take a shot at a Group 1.
“She ran a super race, so we weren’t surprised at all, but even since then, what’s surprised us more is that she has come out of it even better and that’s probably the surprising part, that it hasn’t knocked her.”
The Slipper market is dominated by Coolmore’s unbeaten colts, headed by their recent stallion acquisition and Lady Of Camelot’s stablemate, Storm Boy (Justify) ($2.10), one of five other runners for Waterhouse and Bott, and the Chris Waller-trained Switzerland (Snitzel) ($4.60).
Lady Of Camelot is rated the third pick at $8.00, while her Blue Diamond conqueror, Hayasugi, who will be racing on the Sydney leg for the first time on Saturday, is fifth in the betting, rated a $17 chance. Manaal is currently trading at $51 and Enezza (Exceed And Excel), the final filly in the line-up, is at $101.
However, O’Connor believes given the fillies filled the first four spots home in the Blue Diamond in Melbourne, it would be dangerous to underestimate the four of them this time round.
One of Sir Owen’s ambitions is to have an elite broodmare band and this filly is very much part of that goal. He’s also a shareholder in Storm Boy with Coolmore and that’s another goal – to build up the stallion equity
“I think 100 per cent people are underestimating the fillies,” he said. “The form of the Blue Diamond backs that up. It seems the better fillies went through that race and Manaal, Michael Freedman really likes, and we are not afraid of any of the colts. We wouldn’t be swapping our position and it’s great to be part of such a competitive race. Hopefully there’s no hard-luck stories on the day and we can see a proper two-year-old win the Slipper.
“It looks to be a very deep race, you have Storm Boy coming with the big stand-out performance in Queensland and then horses like Switzerland and Straight Charge coming through Sydney trial races – it looks a really deep race.”
Over the past years, Glenn has been building his female families to create an elite broodmare band, while also investing in high-class stallion prospects, including Storm Boy.
“One of Sir Owen’s ambitions is to have an elite broodmare band and this filly is very much part of that goal and he’s also a shareholder in Storm Boy with Coolmore, so that’s another goal is to build up the stallion equity,” said O’Connor.
“So our heart will lead with Lady Of Camelot, but our head will lead with Storm Boy on the day, but it’s a great testament to Sir Owen and the level of horse that he’s been able to breed over the last years and it’s something we’re really proud of as a company.”
Like Lady Of Camelot, Storm Boy is out of a daughter of Coolmore’s long-serving stallion Fastnet Rock and a win for either of them this weekend could give him a leading chance to land his first Australian Broodmare Sire title.
Fastnet Rock is currently sitting atop of the broodmare standings, with progeny out of his daughters earning $22,840,102 in prize–money so far this season, meaning he is a little under $176,000 ahead of his former barnmate Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) in the race to be crowned Australia’s champion broodmare sire.
“He’s having a stand-out year as a broodmare sire, Lady Of Camelot who might be the best two-year-old filly, but Storm Boy is the top–rated colt going into the race and plenty of others,” said O’Connor.
As for the prized Miss Debutante, she is empty this year, having produced late a filly by Yarraman’s two-time champion, I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and has a colt yearling by Flying Artie (Artie Schiller), who has been retained by Glenn.
It could be a red letter day for the mare and Go Bloodstock on Saturday with Platinum Jubilee, who is also trained by Waterhouse and Bott, set to line up in the Don Casboult Classic (Gr 3, 1200m), while Michael Freedman’s Queen Of The Ball will take her chance in the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in Melbourne.
But whatever the results this weekend, Miss Debutante and her daughters have guaranteed themselves a spot in the books of the best stallions Australia has to offer in the years to come.