Man From Uncle Heading For Stardom
Having only his fourth race start and after sitting wide for much of the race, Man From Uncle overpowered Guard of Honour (Northern Meteor) close to home to win by a neck with Generalissimo (Dream Ahead) a close up third in 1:11.20.
Man From Uncle was well backed late but had been overlooked by many punters despite good performances at his three starts last spring, giving an indication of high level ability in the last of those runs when coming from well back to finish a close third to Souchez (Lonhro) in the Hilton Stakes (registered as VRC Springtime Stakes) (Listed, 1400m) at Flemington.
Bred by members of the Crismale family, Man From Uncle was a $35,000 purchase for his trainer Anthony Cummings from the 2015 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale (Summer) and the gelding is the first foal of his unraced dam Derelique (Danehill Dancer) whose pedigree is first class.
He comes from the first Australian crop of his sire Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie), also sire of Derelique’s subsequent foals, unraced filly She’s On Cue (2014) and colts foaled in 2015 and 2016.
It is unlikely an opportunity to repeat the mating will be possible as Uncle Mo, after completing four seasons at Coolmore’s Hunter Valley farm, has not returned here due to his great success in the United States where he stands at Ashford Stud in Kentucky at a 2017 fee of US$150,000.
The instant, top level results achieved by Uncle Mo in his home country have not been repeated in Australia as of his 26 stakes winners to date, only Man From Uncle and Moqueen (Dulcify Handicap (Listed, 1600m)), also trained by Anthony Cummings, have been stakes winners here although Conchita, Hollywood Mo and others have performed well in city races.
From Caro’s (Fortino) branch of the Nasrullah (Nearco) male line, Uncle Mo was the unbeaten champion two-year-old colt in the United States in 2010 when he captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Gr 1, 8.5f) at Churchill Downs by four and a quarter lengths and the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 8f) at Belmont Park by almost five lengths after breaking his maiden at Saratoga over six furlongs, scoring by more than 14 lengths.
A rare illness compromised Uncle Mo’s campaign at three years when in five starts he won two more feature events, the Kelso Handicap (Gr 2, 8f) (in 1:33.82) and the Timely Writer Stakes (Listed, 8f), and placed in two Grade One contests, retiring as the winner of US$1,606,000.
Uncle Mo began his breeding career at Ashford Stud in sensational fashion with 28 individual first crop juvenile winners, ten winning stakes races and six of them taking Graded races. Most notable of them was champion two-year-old Nyquist, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Gr 1, 8.5f), Del Mar Futurity (Gr 1, 7f) and Frontrunner Stakes (Gr 1, 8.5f) who went on at three years to win both the Kentucky Derby (Gr 1, 10f) and the Florida Derby (Gr 1, 9f).
In 2016 Uncle Mo was the leading sire of three-year-olds in North America and he has two other Grade One winners, Outwork and Gomo, among his career tally of 26 stakes winners, his females racing as well as his males.
Returning to the female side of Man From Uncle’s pedigree, his unraced second dam Hides (Giant’s Causeway) is a half-sister to the high class performer and producer Shania Dane (Danehill), to Scintillation (Danehill), a star in Hong Kong, and to stakes winner Risk Aversion (Encosta De Lago), from UK winner Subterfuge (Machiavellian) while Man From Uncle’s fourth dam Sandy Island (Mill Reef) won the Lancashire Oaks (Gr 3, 1m 3f) and the Newmarket Pretty Polly Stakes (Listed, 1m 2f).
Sandy Island was one of four stakes winners for her German-bred dam Sayonara (Birkhahn), most important of which was the 1985 Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f) winner Slip Anchor (Shirley Heights), a three-quarter brother to Sandy Island.
Although an outcross within four generations, Man From Uncle carries five lines of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) in more distant removes, two coming through a 5f x 4m double of Danzig (Northern Dancer) and he also has a 5m x 5f cross of Caro.
Man From Uncle is named after a popular 1960s TV series in which Robert Vaughn and David McCallum starred as secret agents. By the end of the autumn the gelding of the same name may also be hailed as a star.