There’s always room for one more
September means spring and the beginning of the new breeding season. It is also the time when stallions can make a late impression and perhaps help breeders to narrow down and finalise their broodmare matings. One beneficiary is Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) whose Rise At Dawn and Positivity on Saturday formed the quinella in Caulfield’s Heatherlie Handicap (Listed, 1700m).
The stallion has accumulated 19 individual stakes winners comprising nine that were bred in the southern hemisphere, almost an even split keeping in mind that two of his northern–bred stakes winners, Circle Of Fire and Athabascan, achieved their stakes successes in Australia.
In addition, Almanzor has sired a further 24 stakes performers, several with Group 1 placings such as Virtuous Circle’s second in the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), Andulus’s second in the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m), Mehzebeen’s second in the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m), Qali Al Farrashar’s third in the New Zealand Oaks and Blue Solitaire’s third in the New Zealand One Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
Rise At Dawn had been set for the Heatherlie after his game win, also at Caulfield, in a Benchmark 100 two weeks earlier. The four-year-old is a front-running type and Saturday’s win, his third in succession, was achieved the same way. However, in stepping up to stakes class for the first time, getting one’s own way becomes more difficult.
His lead was a length at the 1400 metres, slightly less inside the 100 metres, but at the 600 metres Michael Dee let him go and they sped out to a two-length lead at the top of the straight. Approaching the 200 metres he looked highly vulnerable however and was attacked from both sides to form a line of four until the 100 metres. Being the fighter he so clearly is, he rallied and fought off the challengers to claim his seventh win in 12 starts.
“I thought we were beaten at the top of the straight, but I think the horse knew what he was doing because we were headed there but he found a second wind and lifted again,” said Dee.
Runner–up Positivity also showed great courage. She was the first to issue a challenge to the winner, but inside the 100 metres she looked like she’d had enough yet, she too, rallied hard to lunge at the line for a hard-fought second.
Rise At Dawn is the sixth winner from the good sprinter Kay’s Awake (Towkay), a Listed scorer of Ellerslie’s Newmarket Handicap (1200m), one of her six wins. Kay’s Awake’s splendid record included two Group 1 seconds in the Telegraph Handicap (1200m) and Waikato Draft Sprint (1200m), plus thirds in the same two races. Her dam, Wake Up Suzie (Hereward The Wake) was a Listed winner at Riccarton. The $90,000 Lindsay Park Racing outlayed for him at the 2022 Inglis Premier Sale has been rewarded with a return ratio of better than 5–1, having now earned $492,085 in prize-money.
The Heatherlie Handicap distance of 1700 metres is the furthest so far for Rise At Dawn. Can he get 2000 metres? His heart says yes. Will his dam’s propensity for sprints limit his range or will he claim more of Almanzor’s influence which has seen five of his stakes winners score at 2400 metres or further? If he remains in training, who is to say that a Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) is not beyond him.
Cambridge Stud had more to say in Sydney and Melbourne proceedings when Ceolwulf (Tavistock) and Young Werther (Tavistock) each saluted the judge. The latter does not win out of turn but he keeps ringing the cash register. In taking out Saturday’s race, Young Werther is now a five-time winner banking more than $2 million in prize-money without claiming a stakes win. Five of his placings have been at Group 1 level, including second in the Australian Derby Gr 1, 2400m) and third in the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m). Maybe this preparation the seven-year-old will land that elusive bold caps victory.
Ceolwulf, bred by Cambridge Stud’s Brendan and Jo Lindsay, has something in common with Young Werther in that he too ran second in the Australian Derby, just last season. Saturday’s Benchmark 100 (1500m) success, in which he lumbered 60 kilograms, was his second in 11 starts. The representative of the last small crop of Tavistock (Montjeu) could be in for a big season, especially when tried over more ground.
Maybe not Riccarton?
A little further east from Cambridge, near Hamilton, High View Stud’s Wrote (High Chaparral) sired Read About It to score the Wanganui Guineas (Listed, 1200m).
The Guineas field was just seven but it held some intrigue as the two favourites, Belardi (Belardo) and Read About It arrived at Wanganui as last-start stakes winners. However, the result was clear and Read About It stamped himself as a genuine contender for higher honours, taking his record to two Listed wins in just three starts.
All seven runners raced wide, but it was Read About It who was widest into the straight in a compact field. He levelled up soon after and took over before the 100 metres and was never in any danger to the line, away by a length and a half. The winning time of 1:16.61 was a clear indication that it was a fairly testing track, although the Guineas was not run at a hectic pace as the open sprinters ran the same distance nearly a second faster.
Next for Read About It will likely be the Hawkes Bay Guineas to be run on the second day of the Hastings spring carnival and the obvious question will be whether he is as effective on a firmer surface. Also, the competition will only get tougher. So far, he hasn’t really been tested and he can only win against those who show up.
Winning trainer Robbie Patterson made the surprise announcement that Read About It’s three-year-old season may not take the obvious path. “We will go home and have a think but I’m not keen on going to Christchurch for the Two Thousand Guineas as he has a big season ahead of him and I don’t want to bury him now,” said Patterson. “Going forward I think he is an out-and-out stayer and I have been going on about the Derby for him as he is so relaxed and is very exciting.”
Read About It was purchased at the NZB National Weanling sale for $5,000. His dam Diggilou (Iffraaj) is a half-sister to Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) second Perfect Rhyme (Poet’s Voice). His granddam is a half-sister to Black Opal Stakes (Listed, 1200m) winner You’re Canny (Canny Lad) and his great granddam Techniques (Palace Music) scored Newcastles’s Newmarket Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m). This is the family of New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Ugo Foscolo (Zacinto) whose great granddam Mad Desire (Covetous) and Techniques are half–sisters.
Te Akau’s next Melbourne star?
Quintessa (Shamus Award) was bred in New Zealand but conceived in Australia from an all-Australian family. Racing from the Te Akau stable, the mare, now a four-year-old, has a never-say-die attitude and gives her best every time she is asked. We saw it first hand in many of her races last season, none more so than her super fourth behind Bonny Lass (Super Easy) in Te Rapa’s BCD Sprint (Gr 1, 1400m) back in February.
Prior to that she landed the Levin Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) so to show up at Te Rapa and race over a shorter distance and finish so strongly in her first attempt against older runners was a terrific achievement. Her three autumn runs in Australia for a fourth in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), a nose second in the Alister Clark Stakes (Gr 2, 2040m) then fourth in the AJC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m), underlined her willingness to run.
For her first start this season, Saturday’s Cockram Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Caulfield, Quintessa was asked to carry 60 kilograms over 1200 metres, a distance many would have felt was a bit sharp. The weight was not a factor, and neither was the distance, as she levelled up to the leaders at the 100 metres then put them away with a touch of class.
Bloodwise, Quintessa should be comfortable over more ground than 1200 metres, the distance of three of her five wins to date. Her dam, Chaquinta (High Chaparral) was successful five times including at 2700 metres. The shortest of Chaquinta’s wins was 2000 metres.
Shamus Award (Snitzel) only won twice, at 1600 metres and 2040 metres but had a somewhat unique racing career in that both wins were at Group 1 level and his breakthrough success just happened to be the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
He has sired five Group 1 winners, four of which, Duais, Incentivise, Mr Quickie and El Patroness, have each succeeded at Group 1 over 2400 metres. Of the five, Quintessa’s blood suggests that she should have the least problem over more ground.
Quintessa was a $170,000 buy from Wentwood Grange by Te Akau’s David Ellis for a return of more than $700,000, a figure that will undoubtedly grow, so it’s time for a bold prediction. Last March Quintessa was just beaten at Moonee Valley over the Cox Plate distance. She can race handy to the pace, finishes strongly and has that highly desirable trait of giving her all.
However, the Cox Plate is not the target. The Let’s Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), set for September 14 is next with the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on Victoria Derby day the ultimate goal. Maybe the Cox Plate next season?
NZ connections
Growing Empire (Zoustar), impressive winner of Saturday’s HDF McNeil Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), his third stakes win in only four starts, has a close connection with New Zealand.
The boom colt, a $700,000 purchase from the 2023 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, represents a family well known on the eastern side of the Tasman. His dam is a half-sister to champion New Zealand filly Il Quello Veloce (Captain Rio), winner of the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) while his granddam is a sister to Broodmare of the Year Parfore (Gold Brose), the dam of five stakes winners, including Group 1 scorers Tiger Tees (Dubawi) and Terravista (Captain Rio).
Parfore is not the only Broodmare of the Year from this line. So is Night Girl (Night Raid), dam of the outstanding New Zealand champion Syntax (Count Rendered). That was a wee while ago (1956) not to mention a few generations ago. Growing Empire’s sixth dam Joy Wyn (Count Rendered) was a three-quarter sister to Syntax.