Media Sensation the latest good one bred by Linda Huddy
Near the lead throughout, Media Sensation showed plenty of fight to hold off runner-up Valalie (Snitzel) by a half-length while favourite Xpression (Showcasing) came from well back to finish third, another length and a quarter away, in 1:36.43.
Last-start winner of the Soliloquy Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m), Media Sensation was bred in Australia by prominent Queensland owner/breeder Linda Huddy and sold for NZ$425,000 at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale, where she was included in the draft from Lime Country Thoroughbreds. Her lucky and astute purchasers were Sarah Green and Ger Beemsterboar of Barneswood Farm with guidance from co-trainers Peter and Dawn Williams.
Media Sensation is the first classic winner for Yarraman Park Stud’s I Am Invincible, his sixth Group 1 winner and his third at 1600 metres after I Am A Star and Oohood.
As mentioned above, last Saturday was a big one for the stallion as his six-year-old gelding Most Important (I Am Invincible) won his fifth black type race, the Keith Noud Quality (Listed, 1200m), at Doomben after his two-year-old filly Steal My Kisses (I Am Invincible) became her father’s 39th individual stakes winner in the Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) in Melbourne.
Linda Huddy, Media Sensation’s breeder, first became recognised in Australian racing through the exploits of her outstanding gelding Shoot Out (High Chaparral), a five-time Group 1 winner and earner of more than $3.2 million, and it is significant that the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas winner’s once raced-dam Different To (High Chaparral) is by Shoot Out’s sire, a multiple classic winner and international stud success by the exceptional Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) after a speed-to-stamina mating which has produced a dream result.
Different To produced Media Sensation as her second foal after an unnamed Excelebration (Exceed And Excel) colt in 2014, while to follow the mare has an unraced two-year-old filly, Amelia’s Contraire (Hinchinbrook), sold for $200,000 at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. This spring Different To has foaled a full sister to Media Sensation.
Different To is out of Caserio (Kaapstad), a winner of four races, making her a half-sister to the 2006 New Zealand 1,000 Guineas winner Dorabella (Postponed), also winner of the Captain Cook Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and other feature races and to dual Listed winner Crusoe (Volksraad).
Dalmator (Western Symphony), third dam of Media Sensation, won races in Sydney and in New Zealand as well as registering three stakes placings in Australia.
This is a family developed in the Vella brothers’ stud in New Zealand following their importation of Media Sensation’s fifth dam Watch Valdi (Tudor Music).
Watch Valdi’s best foal for them was Media Sensation’s fourth dam Our Lafite (Sovereign Edition), winner of the 1984 VRC Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) and runner-up to Spirit Of Kingston (Bletchingly) at her next start in the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m). Our Lafite’s stakes-placed daughter Loudenne (Palace Music) has further boosted the female line by producing another New Zealand 1,000 Guineas winner, Insouciant (Keeper), New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year in 2008.
Former Victorian sire Streetfighter (Aggressor) is a half-brother to Media Sensation’s sixth dam Kiss Me (Tamerlane) while their dam Clochemerle (Le Lavandou) is a half-sister to Bellborough (Mossborough), a leading sire in New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s.
Media Sensation’s pedigree carries three duplications of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) through his outstanding sire sons Danzig, Sadler’s Wells and Nijinsky as well as multiples of Kris (Sharpen Up), Sir Ivor (Sir Gaylord), Round Table (Princequillo) and others.
If you want to buy an I Am Invincible yearling in 2019 be sure to get along to the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale starting on January 9, which has no fewer than 61 of his colts and fillies listed, the largest representation by any stallion after the son of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) had a very busy 2016 serving season, when he covered 213 mares.