High drama as Kintyre handed Frank Packer Plate win
He had to do it the very hard way, but Kintyre (Hallowed Crown) finally joined his half-sister and fellow Gary Portelli-trained galloper Fireburn (Rebel Dane) as a stakes-winner with a protest victory in Saturday’s Frank Packer Plate (Gr 3, 2000m) at Randwick.
The second foal of Newcastle maiden winner Mull Over (So You Think), a mare bought by Louis Mihalyka’s Laurel Oak Bloodstock for just $22,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale of 2018, Kintyre at last earned a stakes victory after four Group placings from his previous ten starts.
It at first looked like he’d been denied again, when he battled along a tight rails run inside leader Gold Bullion (Savabeel) only to be nosed out at the finish.
But Kintyre’s black-type laurel came in the stewards’ room, when Steve Railton’s panel deemed a shift inwards inside the last 20 metres from Gold Bullion and Tim Clark had sufficiently impeded Jamie Kah on Kintyre for the placings to be reversed.
That came much to the relief of punters, with Kintyre firming late to start $3.50 second favourite and Tulloch Lodge’s Gold Bullion easing to $13.
Bred by Laurel Oak in conjunction with Goodwood Farm’s Kerrie Tibbey, who also retained a share, Kintyre now has three wins from 20 career starts. He’s also run fourth twice at stakes level, in last October’s Gloaming Stakes (Gr 3, 1800m) and last month’s Tulloch Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m).
Saturday’s victory pushed the gelding’s earnings past $500,000, which alongside Fireburn’s $4.2 million is a decent return from a $22,000 mare.
And while he has a long way to go to catch Laurel Oak teammate Fireburn – who won the 2022 Golden Slipper-ATC Sires’ Group 1 double plus two Group 2s before her multi-million dollar sale to Japan last year as a broodmare – few horses will have deserved a black-type win more than this.
“He has been so consistent. He hasn’t run a bad race yet,” said Portelli, who’s cursed a series of wide barriers in Kintyre’s career before yesterday.
“Barrier one, finally, and he got every chance. It was a good ride. It would have been tragic to see him get beaten.
“I didn’t realise watching it live that it was so tight there until we watched the head-on shot.
“Jamie said, ‘I think he should have won’. So we said, ‘Let’s watch it’. When we saw that she took the rail the last 25 metres, the rules are you can’t squeeze them up. So anyway, we got the money.”
Portelli said it was possible Kintyre may now seek some Brisbane riches, though there remain doubts over his capacity to stay the 2400-metre trip of a Derby.
“His quality might take him out to a Derby trip but certainly there will be something up there for him,” he said. “He won’t earn money sitting in the stable or in a paddock eating grass.”
Portelli and Laurel Oak have another good reason to cheer Saturday’s result – and it’s currently standing in the trainer’s Warwick Farm stable, after Laurel Oak paid $460,000 at Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale for Mull Over’s third foal, a colt by Pierata (Pierro), bred by Laurel Oak and Goodwood Farm.
Aiming to repeat the Fireburn trick, Mull Over is now back in foal to Widden Stud’s Rebel Dane (California Dane).
Kintyre becomes the seventh stakes-winner for Twin Hills Stud’s Hallowed Crown (Street Sense), who’s had three in Australia from 154 runners, plus two in Singapore and one in New Zealand. Hallowed Crown’s progeny are headed by the dual Group 1-winning daughter Colette.
Kah said she was convinced Kintyre would have won comfortably but for Gold Bullion’s interference.
“The margin is very small but I felt like my horse was going to go on and win easily,” she said.
“The interference has definitely cost me a good length, I think.’’
Robert and Luke Price-trained filly Our Gold Hope (Lope De Vega) ran third to pick up more black-type after her second in the Kembla Grange Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) last month, which preceded a fair fifth in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Favourite Tannhauser (Dundeel, $2.60) loomed up but didn’t finish off in the Heavy9 conditions, running a 1.2 length fourth.