“The” Connection
The ownership trio of Bourke, Bourke and Piercy may race their charges in yellow and black but the colour purple might be more appropriate after a memorable week.
One Bold Cat (The Bold One) saluted in the postponed and transferred Arrowfield Stud Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) last Wednesday, providing more than enough for the ownership to celebrate. Then four days on at Hawera the team’s celebrations were set to continue after The Hottie (Swiss Ace) prevailed in the Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m). The purple streak carried over to the last race on the card when the same team’s Belles Beau (Iffraaj) scored win number three in six starts.
Many would have been caught off guard with One Bold Cat’s performance at Matamata, especially given that the six-year-old’s best form was beyond the 1600 metres of the Group 1 feature. That was last December in the Counties Cup (Gr 3, 2100m), run over 2100 metres. One possible clue that the gelding is more versatile than expected was his bold fourth over the 1600 metres in January’s Thorndon Mile (Gr 1, 1600m).
He had two more autumn runs after that for a game third in the Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and an okay sixth in the Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) when El Vencedor (Shocking) ran most of the field off their feet.
Off until August, he tuned up for the Arrowfield with a solid finish for third in an open handicap over 1200 metres at Wanganui late in the month and Wednesday’s race was designed to clean him up for the Livamol Classic (Gr 1, 2040m) which is set for Saturday week. The way he outfinished Group 1 mare Skew Wiff (Savabeel) was a replay worth rewatching. She had the race shot to pieces at the 200-metre mark, but One Bold Cat kept finding and nailed her short of the post. Such a run, at a distance short of his best, has shot him to the head of the Livamol market.
Although six, One Bold Cat has only been to the races 18 times. The Arrowfield was his eighth success and he has banked in excess of $540,000.
His family is somewhat rare in that his close relations do not appear in recent sales catalogues. Floozie Cat (One Cool Cat), his dam, won twice but she is the only foal of her dam, Floozie, an unraced O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) half-sister to a good one in Happy Star (Fiesta Star).
Happy Star scored three wins at two, including the Champagne Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) at Ellerslie. Before leaving New Zealand he added four more wins, culminating with the Counties Metric Mile (Listed, 1600m). He then trekked to Victoria for the last part of the 1996-97 season, landing two wins at Flemington including the Winter Championship (Listed, 1600m).
In the spring of 1997 he added two Caulfield wins including his most important career victory in the JJ Liston Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m). He was to win twice more, the last of his 13 wins taking place at Caulfield as a nine-year-old.
Happy Star’s dam and One Bold Cat’s grandam is Immunize (Diplomatic Agent), a Listed winner of the Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes (1400m). The next dam, My Conchita (Serenader II) was half-sister to Chantecler (The Cobbler), dam of the top NZ 3YO filly of her year, Great Northern Oaks (Gr 2, 2400m) winner Mer’cler (Crest Of The Wave).
One Bold Cat is by The Bold One (Fastnet Rock), now head of the roster at Grangewilliam Stud and sire of three stakes winners from small crops. In siring his first Group 1 winner, Grangewilliam can take some solace after the recent loss of Zed (Zabeel).
The Hottie has her own story, one which includes her being close to not being able to run due to a bleeding attack during her last run of last season at Riccarton. She too is lightly raced yet seven years old. Saturday’s Group 3 was just her 16th start. She has six wins and five placings and has accumulated $195,995 in earnings. Her six-year-old season was her most productive wins-wise with three plus a stakes-placing but bold black-type, always welcome for breeders, is pure bonus.
A handy third, three out at the top of the straight, The Hottie was one of three chances half way up the straight but over the final 50 metres was too strong. Post race, trainer Robbie Patterson said that keeping the mare fresh and with not a lot of work meant less stress. He may have been forced to ease up on her work but in the process may have found a winning formula.
Keeping it in the family
Interestingly, there is a strong connection between The Hottie and The Bold One. The first word in both their names provides a clue as they both descend from the famous “The” line established by the Dennis Brothers.
The brothers bred The Bold One and raced him in partnership with Bourke, Bourke and Piercy. He traces to their foundation mare The Kurd (Kurdistan) via The Jewel (O’Reilly), The Grin (Grosvenor), The Dimple (Noble Bijou) and The Pixie (Mellay).
The Hottie’s dam The Countessa is also by O’Reilly and is a daughter of The Dame (Noble Bijou) from The Wayfarer (Star Way) from The Clippie (War Hawk II) from The Imp (Bellborough), a half-sister to The Pixie.
The Hottie’s branch of the family is not as prolific as others. Apart from The Hottie, the only stakes winner descending from The Imp is The Clippie, her fourth dam. Nevertheless, good blood is there including the presence of O’Reilly, Noble Bijou (Vaguely Noble) and Star Way (Star Appeal), three major forces that are found in the other branches. She becomes the 36th stakes winner from this line which is headed by triple Group 1 winners, the brothers’ The Phantom (Noble Bijou) and The Phantom Chance (Noble Bijou).
More salt
The sad saga of Tavistock (Montjeu) has been told and retold but the same saga refuses to go away, underlined by the impressive win by Ceolwulf (Tavistock) in Saturday’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m).
Tavistock’s demise followed a shortened season in 2019 which resulted in a small crop of 33 foals, of which Ceolwulf is one. At the time of Ceolwulf’s sale, at the 2022 NZB Ready to Run Sale, Tavistock was listed as having sired 38 individual stakes winners. Nine of the 38 had succeeded at the elite Group 1 level. Two years on, his statistics read 51 and 11.
Bred by Brendan and Jo Lindsay of Cambridge Stud, Ceolwulf was not offered as a yearling but instead showed up in Sam Beatson’s Riversley Park draft of the Ready to Run Sale to run the last 200 metres of his breeze up in 10.77 secs. He was sold to trainer Joe Pride for $170,000.
Reserved until his three-year-old season, Ceolwulf won at his second time of asking at Warwick Farm and at his next start was a game second behind Encap (Capitalist) in the Ming Dynasty Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m). Last autumn he returned for two fair sixths in the Hobartville Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and the Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) before bursting onto the scene with two very good seconds to champion three-year-old Riff Rocket (American Pharaoh). He was three-quarters of a length away in the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) and even closer, just a long neck behind, in the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
His connections must think highly of him as they stepped him up for a crack at the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), won in spectacular fashion by the runaway Pride of Jenni (Pride of Dubai). He wasn’t the only one to be run off his feet that day, finishing an ordinary eighth.
Second up this season he made short work of a 1500–metre Benchmark 100 handicap at Rosehill in late August then showed he was close to winning form at stakes level when running second to Eliyass (Le Havre) in the Kingston Town Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), the first two well clear and staging a great battle.
In the Epsom, Ceolwulf sat back of midfield and three wide from the 600 metres and when the field reached the home straight he had plenty to do. Once balanced, from the 300 metres he accelerated quickly and approaching the 100-metre mark was travelling better than anything else to take the lead soon after. To the line he was full of running to score by more than length in 1:34.46, the last 600 metres in 34.72secs.
Las Brisas (Shamardal), Ceolwulf’s dam, never raced but has lots of experience through the sale ring. She was offered as weanling, as a yearling and as a three-year-old in training and finally as a broodmare which is where Cambridge Stud found her for £50,000 in 2017. She had one foal in Ireland and Ceolwulf is her second foal and first foaled in New Zealand. His 2022 half-sister by Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) was sold at the 2024 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling sale to John Foote for $260,000.
Las Brisas is from a winning half-sister to four stakes winners including Group 1 winners Cerulean Sky (Darshaan) and Moonstone (Dalakhani). Another half-sister is Danoise (Danehill), grandam of Champion Hong Kong Sprinter Wellington (All Too Hard).
Another Almanzor
Headed towards the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) is Keeneland, the 20th stakes winner for Cambridge Stud’s now permanently domiciled Almanzor.
A field of ten assembled for Saturday’s Super Impose Stakes (Listed, 1800m), nine of which were one-race winners, the same as Keeneland. The race is one that the staying three-year-olds use to determine their chances in the classics. Last year’s winner, Riff Rocket was the winner of two of his four starts leading into the Super Impose Stakes. He continued in superlative form, scoring not only the Victoria Derby but last autumn landed both the Rosehill Guineas and the Australian Derby.
Keeneland was responsible for dragging the field up to the pacemaker but when he took over before the 200 metres he was travelling smoothly then kicked again over the last 100 metres to win nicely. This was a good trial for the Derby and the way he accelerated late is a good sign.
He is a graduate of the 2023 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 1) and fetched $80,000 and is the second stakes winner and seventh winner from Savabeel Star (Savabeel). The latter is a half-sister to Hawkes Bay Guineas (Gr 3, 1400m) winner Stardane (Soviet Star). Grandam Astradane (Danehill) did not achieve black type but of her six wins, three were at Moonee Valley and she ranks as a sister to dual German Listed winner Genevra (Danehill).