Lingani leaves it late to strike in Lightning
Lingani (America) became the first stakes winner for his regally bred but distinctly obscure sire in taking a dramatic edition of the Lightning Stakes (Listed, 1050m) at Morphettville on Saturday.
Team McEvoy’s outstanding Arabian Summer (Too Darn Hot) was crunched in betting late for her first-up assignment in the two- and three-year-old sprint, but after being loaded as a $2.70 favourite, she broke through the gates and became a late scratching.
This left the field’s other highly vaunted two-year-old filly, Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) third-placegetter Kuroyanagi (Written Tycoon), as the $4.80 popular elect.
But when she was caught wide throughout on a Soft 7 track under Jamie Kah from gate eight of 14, it left room for the second-last stakes race of the Australian season to fall to an outsider.
Lingani, a three-year-old filly trained on-course by Peter and Belinda Blanch, duly obliged, following an inside path to her fourth win from eight starts – all with Dom Tourneur aboard – and her second in city grade.
While she only broke her maiden in February amidst the modest surrounds of Kangaroo Island, Lingani had recent form to suggest she could have started shorter on Saturday than her $21 quote.
She came in with two wins and two seconds from her four starts this campaign, including a nose victory in a 1000-metre Benchmark 66 two runs previously, and a last-start 3.2 length second to in a Murray Bridge metro meeting in the same grade over 1100 metres.
Lingani was beaten that day by the well-performed Clarken and O’Shea three-year-old Hajra (Zoustar), who also went into the Lightning, as $6.50 second-favourite.
But while Hajra disappointed in finishing 11th, bobbing up briefly in the straight from well back before dying on her run, it was Lingani who shone, working home through traffic from second-last on the turn, and bursting through a gap late on to defy the gallant Kuroyanagi by a head.
While the day belonged to Lingani, as much of the story was about her little-known sire, the late America (Snitzel).
He was exceptionally bred – not only being by Arrowfield’s four-time champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) but as the fourth foal of champion sprinting mare Alinghi (Encosta De Lago), winner of four Group 1s and seven other stakes races, including a Grade 3 in the United States.
Bred by Arrowfield, Planette Thoroughbred and Alan Jones’s Belford Productions, America was appropriately a yearling sale sensation, as the second-top lot of Inglis Easter 2015 when bought by David Raphael and Gerald Ryan for $1.8 million.
Alas, he only managed three starts – the best of them probably his five-length sixth in a 1600-metre Wyong maiden in February 2017 – before injuring a tendon. He was given another try by being transferred to Lee and Anthony Freedman, but never raced again.
America was bought off the track by South Australian-based breeder (and trainer) Roslyn Day, standing his first three seasons at her Rosden Park property before being acquired by Victoria’s Ryland Thoroughbreds for the 2020 season. That farm’s owner Luke Ryland last night told ANZ Bloodstock News that America died after a colic attack in March 2021.
The stallion covered four books of mares from 2017 through to 2020 – which the Australian Stud Book states ranged in number from 20 to 28 mares – at fees of $4,400 and $6,600. Arion credits him with 32 named foals, all from his first three crops, with Lingani one of only six from his penultimate season.
He’s had 11 winners from 27 runners including a second metropolitan victor in Call Me Vexatious, who won back-to-back at Morphettville in December.
“He had the ability himself, it just didn’t happen for him unfortunately,” said Ryland, whose farm now stands Spirit Of Valor (War Front) and Stratum Star (Stratum).
“But we had faith in him. We liked his breeding. He was our foundation stallion when we set up in 2020, and he was very easy to match up with mares.
“It’s been a long wait for a stakes winner but it’s good to see he’s got somewhere in the end. I’m getting a bit emotional talking about it, actually. He was just the sweetest boy to do anything with.
“I’ve got seven of his progeny sitting at home waiting to mature, in fact. And there’s some nice big types among them.”
A homebred for a South Australian group including Day and part-owners Trevor Thompson, Gavin Tully, Phillip Schulz and Jeffrey and Ken Stephens, Lingani (3 f America – Betty Butterscotch by De Beers) has now earned $183,395 in prize-money.
She’s the second named foal, among six foals overall, of the mare Betty Butterscotch (De Beers), who won on debut at Strathalbyn in 2014 but never again in 17 starts.
With a weanling colt by the also obscure Barood (Choisir) on the ground, Betty Butterscotch at least boasts some quality from her named offspring, with her other one also being a metropolitan winner in first foal Boolcunda King (Dedline) – a stablemate to Lingani who won twice at Morphettville before being retired last year.