Orr on the agenda for Schwarz after Australia Stakes win
A crack at Group 1 company now awaits Schwarz (4 h Zoustar – Summer Sham by Not A Single Doubt) after the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained four-year-old produced a dominant front-running win in Friday night’s Australia Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at The Valley.
Already a winner at Listed, Group 3 and Group 2 level heading into Friday’s contest, the Rosemont Stud-raced entire enhanced his elite-level claims when he kicked clear rounding the home bend before coming home an eased-down two-length winner over Steparty (Artie Schiller), with a further 0.3 lengths back to Apache Song (Sioux Nation) in third.
“He’s always been a horse we liked a lot and he has that ability and class, but he’s had a couple of runs where he’s gotten it wrong, and then you saw tonight when he gets in a rhythm he killed them half way through the race and looked in control the whole way,” Charlton said.
“This horse has now won four stakes races, two of them at Group 2 level and we are so grateful to have him for a great bunch of clients and he’s still lightly raced so now we’d hopefully like to tick off a Group 1.
“We’ll look at the Orr Stakes as we think he’ll definitely handle 1400 metres and the Canterbury Stakes back in Sydney might be another option.”
Winning rider Blake Shinn also feels there is more to come from Schwarz. He said: “He dominated that race. He jumped on the front foot and basically took me where he wanted to be and I just sat with him and tried to rate him as best I could.”
“It was a good effort as he did it from start to finish and he was a strong winner today.”
Schwarz was purchased by the Rosemont-Victorian Alliance, Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA), and David Redvers Bloodstock for $1.25 million out of his breeder Widden Stud’s draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
He is out of the Group 2-winning Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) mare Summer Sham, who has a yearling colt by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) heading to Inglis Easter this year where he will be offered by Widden Stud as Lot 198.