New Zealand’s Tofane the Queen of Queensland after Tiara success
Tiaras are for royalty and Tofane (Ocean Park), being the current Queen of Queensland, has every right to wear her prize after taking out Saturday’s Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m), the final Group 1 of the season.
Another piece of headwear is the ‘Baggy Green’, the cloth cap worn by the Australian cricket team. Baggy Green is also the name of Tofane’s dam, a mare by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Only a cricketer, or major cricket fan, could have come up with Baggy Green for her name.
The New Zealand cricket team’s equivalent is the Black Cap, a name they have adopted as their team moniker. The Black Caps have also had their share of success in Brisbane, not to mention in Southampton, winning last week’s inaugural ICC World Test Championship. The eight-wicket demolition of India resulted in the Australian cricket captain, Tim Paine, having to eat his own Baggy Green.
The Kiwi-breds’ happy hunting ground at Eagle Farm continues and, borrowing from the cricket theme, in May Tofane’s owners voted against declaring her innings closed and decided instead to bat on. The mare scored the equine equivalent of a century in the Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1,1400m) two weeks ago and her performance in the Tiara surely earns herself an unbeaten double century, capping a great season.
The five-year-old mare will return to race next season, yet a month ago was catalogued to sell at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Even the chief spokesperson for Tofane’s owners, Rupert Legh, inadvertently got caught up in the cricketing vernacular when he stated to ANZ Bloodstock News on Saturday: “We’ll put her out to the spring and then we’ll probably take her up and get over a bit more ground. We’ll test her over a mile and if she handles the mile we might take her up to 2000 metres. If she won (the Empire Rose), then we might say we’ll have a throw at the stumps and maybe run in the Mackinnon and see if she gets to the 2000 metres.”
Blood-wise, the mile of the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) should not be an issue. Her half-brother No Compromise (Pins), currently with Chris Waller, can claim four wins up to 2400 metres. Her dam’s three-quarter sister Funstar (Adelaide) won the Flight Stakes (Gr 1,1600m) while her dam’s half-sister Youngstar (High Chaparral) won the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m).
Tofane’s sire Ocean Park (Thorn Park) had a brilliant turn of foot, sufficient to bag a Group 1 over 1400 metres, but the Cox Plate- (Gr 1, 2040m) winning star excelled at distances between 1600 and 2000 metres. Meanwhile, his progeny include this season’s Auckland Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Ocean Billy.
With this her third Group 1 success, Tofane matches Ocean Park’s Kolding, also with three, and his form includes a Group 2 win over 2000 metres in the Hill Stakes at Randwick.
Tofane’s hot family was discussed at length in this column after her Stradboke victory two weeks ago, but her sire has made added news recently when the New Zealand Stud Book announced the county’s most popular sires.
Ocean Park topped the popularity parade covering 189 mares this past spring, his highest number since he retired to stud in 2013. Across his first four seasons his average was 148 (about Tofane’s batting average) but his stock took a little longer to establish themselves than buyers and breeders were expecting and in his fifth season the number fell to 101, then further to 83 in 2018.
However, trainers such as Chris Waller, and others that had those first couple of crops, held strong, realising that Ocean Park himself never raced at two, showed great promise at three, then steam-rolled through four successive Group 1s in the spring of his four-year-old season.
The lower expectations probably caused Waikato Stud to ease his original fee but, the last two seasons, thanks to nine Group winners and 13 stakes winners, has seen breeders respond accordingly, and this has resulted in his fee returning to its starting point.
Not only Ocean Park, but also…
Ocean Park’s barn mate Savabeel (Zabeel) added to Waikato Stud’s super weekend.
Courtesy of Zayydani, Savabeel sired stakes winner number 115 when the Trelawney Stud owned-and-bred mare stepped up to stakes-winning class with a bold finish wide out, powering home from second-last at the 600 metres to score the Tattersall’s Gold Crown (Listed, 2137m), going away to win by two and three-quarter lengths.
Zayydani promised this valuable black type enhancement to her broodmare potential when finishing third in the Centaurea Stakes (Listed, 2014m) at Morphettville last month. She now has four career wins from 13 starts.
Her bloodlines were already in the purple category, being a Savabeel half-sister to Grunt (O’Reilly), a dual Group 1 winner at Flemington of the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600). Grunt will stand his third season at Yulong Stud in Victoria this coming spring.
Zayydani’s dam, Ruqqaya (Van Nistelrooy), is a winning half-sister to the above-mentioned Ocean Park. Royal blood indeed.
Zayydani has an interesting two x three double up of Zabeel (Sir Tristram) in her bloodlines, through her sire as well as her granddam, Sayyida, a daughter of Zabeel.
Since Zayydani, foaled in 2016, Ruqqaya has foaled a colt to Tivaci (High Chaparral) who realised $500,000 at the 2020 Book 1 Karaka Yearling Sale, followed by a, so far, unnamed sister to Zayydani in 2019. Last spring she visited Waikato Stud’s Super Seth (Dundeel).
Close inbreeding also features in Grunt’s fascinating bloodlines. His sire O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) is a son of Courtza (Pompeii Court – Hunza by Pakistan II). Grunt’s third dam, Eastern Princess, is a Pompeii Court (Tell) three-quarter-sister to Courtza.
Zayydani’s increased bank balance will go some way towards funding a bold venture by Trelawney’s Brent and Cherry Taylor, who are sending their Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Loire, winner of the New Zealand One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), to the northern hemisphere. She is scheduled for, not one, but two coverings by Frankel (Galileo). Their hope is to get a southern hemisphere-time filly, either in 2022 or 2023, on the sound thinking that two chances are better than one.
If one of the two coverings results in a colt, well, the mind might be allowed to wander and wonder at the future possibilities.
There is a lot of water to flow down the nearby (to Trelawney Stud) Waikato River between now and then, but a Group 1 Frankel colt out of a Group 1 filly might be enough to entice the stud to stand another stallion. It was the sires that made Trelawney, so, never say never.
More good news
Waikato Stud’s Ardrossan (Redoute’s Choice) was served a nice family update when Incentivise (Shamus Award) bolted clear by an astonishing 12-length margin in Saturday’s Tattersall’s Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) at Eagle Farm.
The rising five-year-old is in pulverising form having graduated from Toowoomba to town, blowing races wide open with his huge victories.
Saturday’s win was his sixth in succession and the winning margins of his last four have been seven lengths, nine lengths, nine and a half lengths and twelve lengths, the most recent his first attempt at stakes class.
Incentivise and Ardrossan are, officially, half-brothers yet are bred on a very similar pattern being that Shamas Award (Snitzel) is a grandson of Redoute’s Choice, the sire of Ardrossan.
Incentivise is certainly very exciting and, after Saturday, has shortened dramatically in the betting for the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) and Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m). The gelding is headed to Victoria to be trained by Peter Moody.
From Tutukaka to Melbourne
Job one is done and Melody Belle’s (Commands) baby half-brother Tutukaka (Tavistock) is headed home after a successful Brisbane raid that realised a Listed placing then culminated in a Listed win over the unusual distance of 1830 metres for the two-year-olds.
Yes, there were just four opponents, disappointing for the value of the race, but the win was comprehensive and proved to trainer Tony Pike that they are on the right track. Pike was keen to gain points in order to get a start in the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) this coming November.
Sitting outside the leader to just short of the straight, Tutukaka took over soon after and was untested to the line, jockey Michael Cahill easing him down over the final 50 metres, yet still four lengths to the good at the wire.
Clearly, the gelding has inherited some of the family ability and one can’t help but muse that Pike was operating under the radar when he successfully bid $250,000 for the well-related Tavistock (Montjeu) youngster at the 2020 Karaka Yearling Sale, the third top price for a Tavistock that year.
At that time the catalogue had Tavistock’s stakes winners tally at 18 and the stallion’s demise was very fresh in buyers’ minds having had to be euthanised after a serious paddock accident the previous month, December, 2019.
However, in the intervening 18 months his total has now ballooned to 31 individual stakes winners, with Tutukaka’s more-than-promising victory on Saturday.
Tavistock’s average in 2020 for Book 1 was $96,000, with a top price of $300,000. Compare that to the most recent Book 1 sale, which saw his average increase to $141,000 with a top price of $520,000.
The stallion’s final crop is much, much smaller, less than 50, and it is a good bet that demand will be high.
Meleka Belle to hold on to Broodmare of the Year award?
As for Tutukaka himself, he becomes the second stakes winner for Meleka Belle (Iffraaj) and may give the New Zealand Breeders’ Association slight pause when considering the 2021 Broodmare of the Year award, Meleka Belle being the current title-holder.
The favourite is likely to be Opulence (Danroad), dam of Verry Elleegant (Zed), but foaling two stakes winners in the same season is a powerful message.
Extra Explosive (Ekraar), dam of Explosive Jack (Jakkalberry) might have given Opulence a run for her money if he’d taken out his fourth Derby. It worked for Dicidiana (Agricola) when her Dayana (Oncidium) achieved that feat in 1973.
The only other nominee is likely to be Asavant (Zabeel), dam of Avantage (Fastnet Rock), however Verry Elleegant’s fabulous form in the cauldron of Melbourne and Sydney Group 1 racing counts for plenty.
Nevertheless, breeder Marie Leicester has every right to be mighty proud that Meleka Belle is on schedule in becoming a Blue Hen. Her family is as strong as any in the stud book and the line-up of sires through the tail female line is impressive.
As mentioned, Meleka Belle is by influential sire Iffraaj (Zafonic), who is establishing his own sire line via Wootton Bassett and Almanzor.
Best yet, Meleka Belle has many years of productive life remaining. She is rising 12 and has had six foals, the most recent a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) filly, already named My Annie Belle after being retained by Leicester.
Last spring she was sent to Pierro (Lonhro) and is believed to be in foal.
The local scene
It took 37 starts for Pop Star Princess (Makfi) to become a stakes winner, that status arriving in the Rotorua Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) last month, her ninth career win.
In Saturday’s Tauranga Stakes (Listed, 1400m), and using virtually identical tactics by Jonathan Riddell, Pop Star Princess relished the deep track and again went straight to the lead with a slight breather at the 800 metres. Riddell gave her shake half-way down the home straight and she kicked clear for an easy two-and-a-quarter-length win.
Having previously finished third to future Group 1 winners The Bostonian (Jimmy Choux) and Santa Monica (Per Incanto), Pop Star Princess was well overdue for her recent catalogue page upgrade into bold caps.
Pop Star Princess is from Pop Star Queen (Pins), a Group 2 placed Ellerslie winner, herself a half-sister to Great Northern Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) victor Le Baron (Golan).
Her granddam, Dame Mapperley (Volksraad), twice a winner in Sydney and Group 3 placed, is a sister to the dam of Volkstok’n’barrell (Tavistock), whose nine wins include four Group 1s.
The Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m), Air New Zealand Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) were three of his top class performances, plus he ran second in the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) and third in the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m). He ranks as the best to represent the family which had its New Zealand beginnings in the 1970s when Petwood (Petingo) was imported by Mapperley Stud.
Mapperley matron
Petwood managed three wins and claimed as her half-brother Norwegian Group 1 winner Boomerang (Soueida). Another half-brother was the four-time Group placed galloper Hazard (Sheshoon), who stood ten seasons in Australia but met with little success.
Petwood’s half-sister Hornton Grange (Hornbeam) won five races, including at Epsom, and was the dam of Newmarket Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 10f) winner Swiss Maid (Welsh Pageant). Swiss Maid was the top English 3YO filly of her crop.
A further half-sister to Petwood is Debutante (Silly Season), dam of Italian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Don Orazio (Homing), one of her two stakes winners.
Debutante is also the granddam of Al Akbar (Success Express) whose fine race record of eight wins included the Bayer Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) and five more stakes wins, which saw him given his opportunity to become a sire at Grangewilliam Stud.
Al Akbar’s daughter, Vegas Showgirl, was one of his 19 stakes winners but, more importantly, she would foal the great Winx (Street Cry).
Petwood’s first foal was to Mapperley Stud’s then resident sire Long Row (Linacre), a very well performed racehorse and Group 2 winner of seven races. While at Mapperley, Long Row would sire 17 stakes winners.
That initial foal was dual Group 1 winner Getting Closer who was knocked down to Mark Read of Melbourne for $22,000. Getting Closer was successful in the Doomben Hundred Thousand (Gr 1, 1350m) as well as the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) in Perth. In all, he won ten, six at stakes level, and was Group 1 placed three times.
Nine years after Getting Closer, Petwood foaled Instrumental (Chem) whose nine wins included Listed wins at Eagle Farm and Warwick Farm.
There have been five stakes winners and nine stakes placed performers descend from Petwood but those numbers jump to 16 stakes winners and 20 stakes placed performers by going back one further generation to Petwood’s dam Grove Hall (Hook Money).
Mapperley continues to breed from the family, with Comme Bella Fille, a daughter of their young Group 1 sire Complacent (Authorized). She is a great-granddaughter of Petwood and has won two from six, including at Wyong earlier this month.