Inspirational Girl
Inspirational Girl landed a windfall for favourite backers who crunched her from $3.50 to $2.60 in taking the Railway Stakes at Ascot last Saturday, becoming the first Group 1 winner bred by New Zealand’s Jamieson Park stud.
The West Australian mare – yet another from breeder Bob Peters’ cerise and white production line – had won eight of her ten previous starts, starting at $2.25 or less each time.
Yet there’s a fair dash of the upset in the pedigree behind the bay five-year-old.
Her grey British-bred sire Reliable Man – by Arc de Triomphe winner Dalakhani – emulated his dad in taking the French Derby, in 2011, at odds of 16-1 under Melbourne Cup-winner Gerald Mosse.
Reliable Man later had two runs in Australia. He followed up a debut sixth in the George Ryder Stakes by adding a second Group 1 title with a two-and-a-half length win in Randwick’s 2013 Queen Elizabeth Stakes for trainer Chris Waller in a horror show for favourite supporters, the 12-1 pop beating raging $1.28 chance It’s A Dundeel. In so doing, Reliable Man became the first northern-bred horse to claim Group 1s in both hemispheres in more than 20 years.
Inspirational Girl has continued a strong run for her dual hemisphere sire – now standing in Germany – whose best progeny so far have been in the antipodes.
Reliable Man is also the sire of VRC Oaks and Moonee Valley Cup winner Miami Bound, New Zealand stakes-winners Hypnos and Belle Du Nord, plus Australian black type winner Main Stage, and VRC Derby-placed Sully.
While Reliable Man’s siring efforts in the south have so far outstripped his record in the north, the 12-year-old has left stakes winners in Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Denmark.
Inspirational Girl, who reaped the Waikato’s Jamieson Park Stud $190,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, is shaping as the finest product of her dam Be Inspired. The Zabeel mare showed only limited ability on the track, boasting just two third placings from five starts for Sydney trainer John O’Shea in the 2006-07 season, but has performed better as a broodmare.
Her second named foal was the Duporth gelding Ruettiger, who scored a Listed win at Flemington in the All Victorian Sprint Series final (1200m) in 2016, beating no less a galloper than the exceptional Group 1-winning Voodoo Lad into second place.
Little wonder a Hinchinbrook – Be Inspired filly fetched a robust $300,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast, while another daughter Allez Bien (by O’Reilly) sold for $280,000 at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Deeper into Inspirational Girl’s pedigree, Be Inspired is closely related to two stakes winners also out of the Centaine mare Done That.
Team Hawkes-trained full brother Rainbow Styling won two black type 2000-metre races in 2010 – Randwick’s Listed Tatts Cup and Caulfield’s Group 3 Naturalism Stakes – the latter bringing another relative upset at 14-1 (two races after the great So You Think had landed the Underwood Stakes).
And half-sister Zingaling (Redoute’s Choice) notched two stakes wins for Kris Lees, including the 2011 Group 3 Birthday Card Stakes at Rosehill (when drifting from $9 to $11).
Done That is out of the Mill Reef mare Giladah, daughter of the Luskin Star mare Nouvelle Star. Giladah threw another pair of stakes winners including Star Of Nouvelle, who sprung another upset in taking the Group 2 STC Reisling Slipper Trial at hefty odds in 1993.
All in all, Inspirational Girl is portending big things for Jamieson Park, which snapped up Be Inspired as one of its first broodmare purchases, at the 2012 NZB Broodmare Sale for around the $100,000 mark. She’d already had two foals for her Australian owners, and one of them was the Duporth colt offered as a weanling at the same sale, who turned out to be Ruettiger.
“We liked the fact she was a Zabeel mare,” says Jamieson Park’s Sam Munro, who manages the stud along with owner James Chapman. “But the Duporth weanling was a very nice type and that sparked our interest as well.
“Plus, Be Inspired was just a beautiful looking mare, and she had a pedigree with a lot of depth and no weak links. Centaine is a good broodmare producer, plus there’s Mill Reef there as well through Giladah.”
As for the choice of sire in the making of Inspirational Girl, not only was Reliable Man shuttling just down the road from Jamieson Park at Westbury Park, he also had the great Mill Reef in his bloodline, four generations back (Shirley Heights – Darshaan – Dalakhani – Reliable Man).
“Reliable Man was a high class racehorse, and the match-up with Be Inspired tabulated very nicely,” Munro says. “You don’t see much of having Mill Reef on both sides like that down here. It’s obviously worked very well with the record Inspirational Girl has been building up.”
Jamieson Park is now hoping history can repeat, with Be Inspired again in foal to Reliable Man. She also has what Munro describes as “a very nice filly” at foot from the first crop of Coolmore’s US Navy Flag, via his shuttle to NZ’s Valachi Downs.
“She’s one of the best foals we’ve got, so we’re hoping for big things there,” says Munro, who manages some 35 broodmares at Jamieson.
“Be Inspired is getting on a bit at 18, but she just throws very nice looking foals who present very nicely at the sales.
“We’re pretty wrapped to have bred a Group 1 winner. They’re pretty hard things to breed! Hopefully there’ll be more to come.”