Sandbar shows qualities in Rosebud win
First-up since his unplaced run in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 24 and carrying 59kg, Sandbar overcame a wide draw to be near the lead throughout, fighting on well to win by a head from Charge (Zoustar), with Golden Tycoon (Hussonet) just a neck away in third place.
Drifting favourite Plague Stone (Lonhro) finished powerfully for a close fourth after a tough run with Ringerdingding (Sebring), Exceltic (Excelebration) and Outrageous (All Too Hard) all under two lengths from the winner in a bunched finish.
Sandbar’s fitness will improve but there must be some question over his ability to beat the best over 1400 metres. His next start, likely to be in the Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) on September 8, may give us a better idea of his Golden Rose prospects and those of a number of his likely rivals.
Sandbar gave promise as a two-year-old last season, scoring at his first start over 1200 metre at Canterbury before winning the Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1100m) then two starts later he was runner-up to Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Written By (Written Tycoon) in the Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
Sold for $650,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Sandbar is bred to be something special, by record-breaking dual champion Australian sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) out of Tallow (Street Cry), one of the 122 stakes winners by her champion sire whose other daughters include champions Winx and Zenyatta.
John Singleton’s Strawberry Hill Stud, breeder of Sandbar, agreed to buy back an interest in the colt at Magic Millions to race him with a high profile group of partners led by Jadeskye with Neil Werrett’s Werrett Bloodstock also among the team of five owners.
Sandbar’s mother Tallow won twice in Sydney but her most important success was in Melbourne in the VRC The Vanity (Gr 3, 1400m). Her first foal Summer Surf (Big Brown) is a winner but her following two foals before Sandbar, the 2013 filly Bondi Rip (Testa Rossa) and the 2014 colt Broken Bay (More Than Ready), have not raced. Following Sandbar is the now two-year-old filly Bonython (Pluck) and a yearling colt by Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice).Tallow was served late by Snitzel last season.
Tallow and stakes-placed Mr Light Blue (Fantastic Light) are the best of five winners produced by African Queen (Lion Hunter), winner of five races.
This family was introduced to Australia and developed by David Hains of Kingston Town fame with Tallow’s fifth dam, Italian-bred Ursula Lauderdale (Claude), remembered as the dam of Hains’s outstanding filly Lowan Star (Biscay), a nine-time stakes winner whose most important victories came at three years in 1980 when she won the AJC Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) – QTC Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) double after some dazzling wins as a juvenile.
Ursula Lauderdale, sixth dam of Sandbar, was produced by Miniature Portrait (My Babu), a half-sister to former New Zealand sire Ayrshire Bard (Owen Tudor), a Listed winner in Britain noted as the father of Bardall and Piko, prolific black-type winners of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when between them they won 28 stakes events in New Zealand.
Miniature Portrait and Ayrshire Bard are out of Picture Gallery (Nasrullah), a sister to the 1949 One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) and Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Musidora (Nasrullah).
In keeping with an increasing number of feature race winners in Australia, Sandbar carries a double cross of Danehill (Danzig).
Sandbar also carries six lines of Northern Dancer (Nearctic), two coming via three-quarter brothers Nijinsky (Northern Dancer) and The Minstrel (Northern Dancer), while influential stallion Hornbeam (Hyperion) is distantly duplicated through two daughters.
Northern Dancer’s dam Natalma (Native Dancer) appears nine times in Sandbar’s speed dominated pedigree so this Snitzel colt has powerful genetics which make him an interesting stallion prospect.