Muollo and Novara Park grabbing the headlines
Luigi Muollo, principal of Novara Park, near Cambridge, has enjoyed several industry highlights over the last month or so and has maintained his presence with the announcement that his stud had acquired new stallion King Of Comedy (Kingman) for the upcoming breeding season.
This news arrived off the back of Muollo being the subject of more headlines in recent months. Over the weekend, Muollo’s fledgling young stallion Sweynesse (Lonhro), last season’s champion first season sire in New Zealand, reached new heights in his stud career as he struck for his first Australian stakes winner over the weekend through Only Words’ victory in the ANZ Bloodstock News The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m).
While the dominance among three-year-olds of his homebred Explosive Jack (Jakkalberry), the winner of, so far, three Derbys and so far, because the colt is set to take on a fourth, the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), on Saturday.
Muollo not only bred Explosive Jack, he stood his sire Jakkalberry (Storming Home) for four seasons until his untimely death in February 2018. Explosive Jack represents his final crop and is, by far and away, the best staying three-year-old in Australasia this season. The mere fact that he is attempting to win a fourth Derby, and win in five different states, all this season, is a feat in itself.
Then again, his sire was a tough, world traveller who kept coming up season after season, so perhaps it is no wonder that his son has inherited a similar toughness.
Kiwi Chronicles caught up with Muollo whose first comment was: “Explosive Jack is going to have to do it (win a fourth Derby) the hard way. The Melbourne-Brisbane flight was cancelled so the colt will have to float all the way.”
King Of Comedy (Kingman) will join Sweynesse (Lonhro) and Staphanos (Deep Impact) at Novara Park for the upcoming 2021 stud season. He is the first son of Kingman (Invincible Spirit) to stand in the southern hemisphere.
Although his entire racing career, which yielded three wins from 12 starts, was spent in the racing jurisdictions of Britain and Ireland, a mere notion of his talent is exemplified through Saturday’s dominant Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux), who King Of Comedy defeated twice when finishing second, the first in a three-year-old season that at one stage he was the highest-rated in the land.
Regarding Saturday’s Doomben Cup win by Zaaki, Muollo stated: “Gosh, Zaaki was really impressive which further endorses King Of Comedy’s form,” in reference to the two occasions that his new stallion relegated Zaaki to third, in the Newmarket Joel Stakes (Gr 2, 1m) and in the Newbury Diomed Stakes (Gr 3, 1m).
In a light career of a dozen starts King Of Comedy was a Listed winner at three years over the mile at Sandown, where he also won at two. His best performance was his second to Circus Maximus (Galileo) in the Royal Ascot St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m). Third home that day was the Champion Miler in Great Britain for 2019, Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).
Coincidentally, Circus Maximus will stand his first southern hemisphere season not too far from Novara Park, just a few kilometres up the road at Windsor Park Stud.
Muollo had more to laugh about on Saturday when his Sweynesse sired the winner of The Roses through the Star Thoroughbreds-raced Only Words, a horse Muollo couldn’t sell with a reserve of NZ$2,000 as a weanling, but having then raced the horse himself he has maintained an interest since his acquisition by Star.
Winner of the Wanganui Guineas (Listed, 1200m) last spring, Only Words was transferred to Chris Waller’s stable soon after her maiden stakes win and has been successful at Canterbury and was placed in the Gold Coast Bracelet (Listed, 1800m) prior to Saturday’s breakthrough Australian stakes success.
She holds a nomination for the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) to be run at Eagle Farm on June 5, as does Muollo’s Signora Nera, also by Sweynesse, who was fifth in The Roses.
“Only Words is out of a Darci Brahma mare and I believe Sweynesse has a special affinity with Darci Brahma mares, so I have purchased a few lately,” said Muollo. “This might be a mega nick.
“One of the mares I found recently is a sister to the dam of the unbeaten Carribean King, a winner at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday and who is nominated for the Group 1 JJ Atkins.”
Kiwi Cheers
Nine stakes races were run in Australasia last Saturday and three of the eight staged in Brisbane (six), Sydney and Melbourne were won by runners bred in New Zealand, much to the New Zealand industry’s delight.
The Roses was especially notable, in that the first six home were bred in New Zealand. Trailing in behind Only Words was Bargain, a daughter of Ocean Park (Thorn Park), and owned by Garry and Mark Chittick of Waikato Stud. She was a last-start third in the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) in April.
Third was Charms Star (Per Incanto), having her first run since finishing second in the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m). All three are set to meet again in the Queensland Oaks early next month.
Additionally, Westbury Stud’s Redwood (High Chaparral) sired Romancer, winner of The Straight Six (Listed, 1200m) at Flemington, while in Sydney, Polly Grey (Azamour), enjoying career-best form with three stakes wins in her last four starts ahead of her sale at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale today, took out the Lord Mayor’s Cup (Listed, 2000m) at Rosehill.
All three stakes winners raced in New Zealand before heading for greater riches across the Tasman.
Romancer is an interesting case and underlines the great versatility of sons of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells). Redwood himself showed his best form at distances beyond a mile, a distance he succeeded at as a two-year-old. Romancer is the odd-man-out of Redwood’s eight stakes winners.
The others have a preference for races of a mile or beyond yet Romancer is proving a proficient sprinter. His racing in New Zealand included success in the 1300-metre Mufhasa Stakes (Listed) at Ellerslie when trained at Ruakaka by Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs.
Not so Little Avondale
Sam Williams of Little Avondale Stud in Masterton will be beaming during his visit to the Gold Coast sales. Although he didn’t pocket the proceeds of the half-a-million dollars fetched by the Per Incanto (Street Cry) weanling out of Shadwell Stud’s unreserved dispersal draft, on top of the resounding victory by Lost And Running (Per Incanto), in the previous week’s Luskin Star Stakes (Listed, 1300m), he will feel that his resident stallion has finally, and belatedly, caught the attention of Australian buyers.
Per Incanto, whose book is full for the upcoming season, will be front and centre of this coming week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale as his filly, Bonham, goes under the hammer as Lot 707.
In only six starts Bonham has four wins including the Levin Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) in January at Trentham where, at her last start, two months ago, she also finished second in the Wellington Guineas (Gr 2, 1400m) behind the speedy Need I Say More (No Nay Never).
Her new owners, assuming she reaches her reserve, will have a lightly-raced filly with enormous talent who could easily enhance her value over the next few seasons.
As a broodmare her future is assured. Any stud would salivate over having a Group 1 winner with her attributes on their property. In Bonham’s case, her dam is a Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) daughter of Banc De Fortune (Galileo), a Sydney Listed winner who was also Group 1 placed.
Due to two Group 1 victories, including the Australian Oaks (2400m), Bonham’s grandam, Danendri (Danehill) was ranked the top Australian 3YO filly of her crop.
Danendri’s granddaughter, Faint Perfume (Shamardal), matched her, being named the Champion Australian 3YO Filly of 2009-10 courtesy of Group 1 successes in the VRC Oaks (2500m) and the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m).
Bonham’s bloodlines are mouthwatering, to say the least, but the icing on the cake might be that racegoers can witness her racing talent this coming spring and hopefully thereafter.
Time Test on the board
Williams has a second reason to celebrate. Little Avondale shuttler Time Test (Dubawi) sired his first winner, two-year-old colt The King’s Horses, a winner in Milan, Italy on May 15.
On debut, The King’s Horses led from barrier rise and, although pressured at the 200 metres, came way to score by a length over the 1000-metre trip. In Ireland, four days previously, Time Test’s juvenile filly Sunset Shiraz was placed second, also on debut.
This is a promising start for the well-performed son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), whose first southern hemisphere crop sold up to $220,000 at Karaka last January.
Next song for Melody Belle
The darling of New Zealand racing over the past five seasons has, undoubtedly, been Melody Belle (Commands). She made her final raceday appearance in Saturday’s Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2000m), running-on late for fifth and now heads to the sales ring.
Catalogued as Lot 510, Melody Belle joins Bonham and it is going to be very interesting to learn the fate of both.
Melody Belle really captured the hearts of New Zealand racing fans with her sheer determination to get to the line first. From her initial racing season right through to the current season, Melody Belle has always given her best and her best saw her gain an amazing 14 Group 1 victories, a New Zealand record.
Her breeder, Marie Leicester, can be totally proud that Melody Belle continued a fabulous legacy started by her parents, James and Annie Sarten, back in 1937, when they borrowed a mare from a neighbour in order to procure a foal by the great Foxbridge (Foxlaw). The mare missed that first year but the 1939 foal turned out to be Belle Fox, the start of a magnificent history for the Sartens.
Since the mid 1940s, and in nine generations, no fewer than 25 Group 1 Champions and 114 stakes winners can claim a direct line to Belle Fox. The first to succeed at Group 1 level was Supreme Court (Fair’s Fair) whose 16 wins included New Zealand’s premier sprint, the Railway Handicap (Gr 1, 6f) at Ellerslie. The most recent is this season’s standout two-year-old Anamoe (Street Boss) who, after a brilliant second in the 2021 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), followed up with a dominant victory in Randwick’s Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
In between, there have been Golden Slipper winners Dance Hero (Danzero) and, four years before him, Belle Du Jour (Dehere), not to mention the grand miler Grand Armee (Hennessy), a seven-time Group 1 victor, five of them at Randwick.
During the 1960s the Sartens raced the outstanding Star Belle (Summertime) but very nearly didn’t. Annie Sarten was intending to sell the filly at Trentham until her husband James stepped in and did a swap. He was keen to race her and his decision proved right on the mark. She won 18 times and was named the Champion New Zealand 3YO of her crop before heading to Melbourne to add three Group 2 stakes at Flemington and Caulfield.
Melody Belle has certainly deserved her retirement from racing and, as long as she finds a great new home and we can watch to see how her foals remind us of her racing days, then all will be well.
The local scene
The sole stakes race run in New Zealand last Saturday was the long-held Rangitikei Cup (Listed, 1600m) at Awapuni. The win, by Belle Plaisir, provided Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir (Choisir) with a winning double for the day as well as his fifth stakes winner (third stakes winner this season).
It was a smart effort from Belle Plaisir as she was giving the leader at least five lengths at the top of the straight but gathered him in easily with a strong run from the 300 metres and had the race well under control inside the 100 metres, for what was her fourth career success.
Belle Plaisir is the fifth winner and first stakes winner from her dam Eden (Zeditave), a winning three-quarter sister to Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) winner Chlorophyll (Zeditave). Her granddam is a half-sister to Belmont (New York) Grade 1 winner Garthorn (Believe It) from the family of tragically-lost Champion Go For Wand (Deputy Minister).
Undefeated Wonder
Although not seen for four weeks, Courier Wonder (Sacred Falls) continued on his unbeaten, now five-win path, with a decisive three-quarters of a length win in the Sha Tin Vase (Gr 3, 1200m) on Sunday.
The three-year-old was making his first attempt at stakes class and, although pressured over the final 200 metres, lifted strongly in the final strides to claim his maiden stakes success.
His earlier wins, all breaking 1:09 for the 1200 metres, resulted in wide-winning margins but on Sunday, facing his strongest opposition thus far, the gelding clocked his fastest yet, a smart 1:08.16, taking full advantage of his lighter weight.
Strong Kiwi representation
The stunning success of the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale last week included strong participation by a wide range of Kiwi buyers.
Fifteen individual parties invested in 22 lots, signifying a positive outlook by the New Zealand industry.
The top price paid by the New Zealand contingent was by Taylor Bloodstock Marketing of Pukekohe, who shelled out $140,000 for a neat bay colt by Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom).
The colt’s dam, Bella Gioia (Swiss Ace), won twice, was a Classic-placed second in the 2016 New Zealand One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and is a half-sister to the dam of dual Group winner and New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) second Contessa Vanessa (Bullbars).
He descends from a three-quarter sister to Kodiac (Danehill), sire of Cambridge Stud’s top-class sprinter Hello Youmzain, who commences southern hemisphere stud duties later this year.
The second top price of $105,000 was paid by Valencia Park for a strong, good-boned So You Think (High Chaparral) filly. The filly’s grandam is a three-quarter sister to Listed winner Fleur De Chine (Centaine), herself the dam of Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Tully Thunder (Thunder Gulch).
Brave Smash is also the sire of Woburn Farm’s sole purchase as Adrian Stanley parted with $100,000 for a well grown, tall and attractive filly whose granddam, Luna Wells (Sadler’s Wells), won five times, three at Group level, including the Prix Saint-Alary (Gr 1, 2000m) at Longchamp.
Highly respected agent Paul Willetts outlayed $100,000 for a very stylish colt by Russian Revolution (Snitzel) from an Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) half-sister to the Champion More Joyous (More Than Ready). A great family represented here.
Fellow agent, and one making a good name for himself through being dedicated enough to suffer January quarantine down-time during the current pandemic, Bevan Smith partnered with Kilgravin Lodge’s Eion Kemp on three lots.
They secured an attractive dark brown colt by current star sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) for $140,000 as well as an Invader (Snitzel) colt, for $65,000, out of a US-bred Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) half-sister to Hong Kong Horse of the Year Vengeance Of Rain (Zabeel).
Smith also partnered with Kelly Van Dyk of Prima Park in Ohaupo on a Deep Field (Northern Meteor) filly out of the good Brisbane winner Glorious Red (Red Element) for $90,000.
Deep Field is enjoying an enormous season and the filly is closely related to last November’s Stewards Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Sheezallmine (Super Easy).
Hallmark Stud, home to Super Easy (Darci Brahma), took home a Justify (Scat Daddy) filly for $80,000. The filly’s dam, Brilliant Bisc (Elvstroem), was a Randwick Listed winner at two and her granddam, Stella Cadente (Centaine), scored three Group wins, including the Australia Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Moonee Valley. Plenty of residual value here.
Lyndhurst Farm’s Mark Treweek snared a strong-looking brown colt by first season sire Lean Mean Machine (Zoustar) for $55,000. The colt’s granddam is a Listed-winning half-sister to the dam of Champion Filly Mosheen (Fastnet Rock) from the family of Might And Power (Zabeel).