Two-year-olds on show as spring action heats up
Group 1 contests at Randwick, Flemington and Hastings and first juvenile stakes races in ‘Super Saturday’ down under
The first Saturday in October represents so much to so many: Group 1 racing up and down Australia’s eastern seaboard and in New Zealand, important trials heading towards some of the world’s biggest races and the dawning of a new era as the two-year-olds get their first chance at earning black type, kicking off a number of stallion careers in the process.
Today’s Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick and the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Flemington begins the stakes path for the juveniles that culminates in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill in March.
Throw in the Two-Year-Old Plate (1000m) at Eagle Farm and the Nobby Bussell Memorial (800m) at Riccarton and today is full of hope, optimism and suspense for owners and breeders, particularly for those invested in this season’s first season sires.
For Newgate Farm director of stallions Bruce Slade, seeing the stud’s young guns Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) and Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) represented in Sydney and Brisbane is the culmination of four seasons of anticipation.
“It’s a really exciting day, it’s been a big build-up,” Slade told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “These young stallions retired to stud four seasons ago, in 2017, so there’s been a lot of effort from a wide range of people, from the stallion shareholders through to our team at Newgate through to the breeders that have been good enough to support these horses and those that have purchased them to race and have got the first two-year-olds to the races.
“Now we’re going to start to work out whether that’s going to bear fruit. It’s not the be all and end all, it’s just the first weekend of the major two-year-old racing. There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge, but the sooner you start winning these races, the better. We’d love it to start tomorrow of course for Capitalist, Flying Artie and Extreme Choice.”
The last time Australia’s eventual champion two-year-old raced on this day was in 2015 when Capitalist took the Breeders’ Plate, while the Nobby Bussell Memorial was won by a green Avantage (Fastnet Rock) in 2017, so it is perhaps fitting that both horses will play an important role in today’s action on opposite sides of the Tasman.
Full circle for Capitalist in Breeders’ Plate
Capitalist is favoured to produce a Breeders’ Plate winner today with Kalashnikov, trained by Peter and Paul Snowden and owned by James Harron Bloodstock’s colts syndicate, the $2.60 favourite with TAB last night.
“It would obviously be a dream result and a massive vote of confidence in the project if Capitalist were able to supply a Breeders’ Plate winner with his first crop,” Harron told ANZ Bloodstock News. “That said, much more important is how the season as a whole goes for him as a stallion, and the early talk is very encouraging and it would be fantastic to see that play out on the race track.
“Naturally expectations are high with a horse who was as precocious as he was, though it must be noted that they are actually very strong and often scopey sorts who also really look like they’ll go on with things as they get older. It has been great to see the rise of his sire Written Tycoon to now be the leading stallion in Australia at present, which can only be an additional positive for Capitalist’s prospects.”
Capitalist was the first horse to sport Harron’s now familiar green and gold silks in a race, leading home Detective (Snitzel) in a James Harron Bloodstock one-two in the Breeders’ Plate and setting him on a path that saw him capture the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) and Golden Slipper double.
It is a day that Harron remembers fondly, being the first representative of the colts syndicate put together by the bloodstock agent, and one that he hopes will be replicated today.
“It was a great day and a result we could have dreamed of to kick off our colt partnership,” he recalled “Raising the capital that first year to get out and purchase the colts at the sales involved a lot of faith from our owners, and there’s nothing that can quite fulfill that faith like results, so we were thrilled for everyone who had got behind us that we were able to kick things off so strongly.
“It really set the whole project in motion and it’s with great pride that this year marks the fifth year of two-year-old colts in the green and gold silks. We very much aim to continue in the same vein, doing our best to secure the best stallion prospects at the yearling sales, while also being big supporters of our stallions, both in terms of trying to give them the best chance we can in terms of broodmares and being strong buyers for their progeny at the sales.”
Such is the case with Kalashnikov, a $600,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase, who earned favouritism with a five-length trial win at the official two-year-old trials on the Kensington track last week. He is joined by stablemate Astrologer, who also represents a first season sire in Vinery’s Star Turn (Star Witness); the pair are prepared by Peter and Paul Snowden.
“Kalashnikov has always been a real stand-out amongst the group, he’s continued to go forward in every way since the sales and looks a ready-made two-year-old,” Harron said. “Astrologer is more one of those quiet achievers who gets on and continues to improve – to my eyes his trial was that of a real racehorse who will keep raising the bar as he gains more experience.
“With regard to the first season sire race, I am naturally very biased and hope that Capitalist can do what we hope he can and provide plenty of wins for those who have got behind him in the breeding barn and in the sales ring.”
First season sire race begins in earnest
In addition to the Harron pair, Maurice’s Medad (Maurice) and Shaquero (Shalaa) will represent first season sires in today’s Breeders’ Plate.
In fact, across the five two-year-old races in Australia and New Zealand, nine first season sires will have runners.
Some, like Capitalist and Darley’s American shuttler Frosted (Tapit), have already had runners in Australia’s first two-year-old race of the season, the Darley Spring Preview (900m) at Flemington last week.
Others, like Arrowfield Stud shuttlers Maurice (Screen Hero) and Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) as well as Haunui Farm’s Belardo (Lope De Vega), have had multiple winners already in the northern hemisphere; Frosted, too, belongs in that category.
One, former Florida-based stallion Wrote (High Chaparral), has his first southern hemisphere runner today with the Highview Stud acquisition now permanently based in New Zealand.
And for three of them – Extreme Choice, Flying Artie and Star Turn – today is the first time they will be represented in the sires’ column.
In regards to today’s two-year-old stakes races, history is not on the side of the first season sires; it has been seven years since a son or daughter of a first season sire took out any of the three stakes races today, with Law giving Denman (Lonhro) the best possible start to his career at stud when taking the Breeders’ Plate in 2013.
The Gimcrack Stakes was last won by a daughter of a first season sire in 2011, when Hussousa prevailed to give Husson (Hussonet) a first Australian stakes winner straight off the bat.
That said, victory today may not be a portent of things to come, with Denman and Husson finishing second to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Casino Prince (Flying Spur) in their respective first season sire races.
As for the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes, a first season sire was last successful all the way back in 2007 when Exceedingly Good set Exceed And Excel (Danehill) on a pathway to becoming one of the most successful stallions of his generation.
Today will also begin the scouting process for the next top stallion, with the likes of Choisir (Danehill Dancer), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and Pierro (Lonhro) winning the Breeders’ Plate in the last two decades.
“I think on our roster alone, two of those horses have come through those first two-year-old trials in Wandjina and Capitalist,” Slade said. “That’s just from a very small sample size and you had two future Group 1-winning stallions who came through this very race, the Breeders’ Plate, so that will hold a lot of our attention as will the Maribyrnong Trial down the line.
“We’re always keeping an eye on horses that might make future stallions. I suppose that’s not much different to any other raceday, but the new crop and the next generation is always exciting. It’s that unknown factor, I suppose, so I can’t wait for what lies ahead.”
Avantage, Melody Belle set for battle
While the two-year-olds add intrigue on a big day across Australia and New Zealand, it is a bumper day full of feature races on both sides of the Tasman.
At Randwick, Dame Giselle (I Am Invincible) will attempt to join top fillies Samantha Miss (Redoute’s Choice) and Angst (Kala Dancer) in completing a clean sweep of the Princess Series by taking out the last leg, the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Two of Sydney’s most prestigious handicaps will also take centre stage with the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and The Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m) acting as stepping stones to the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) and the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), while the Premiere Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) serves as something of a last-ditch effort to secure a berth in the $15 million The Everest (1200m) on October 17.
In Melbourne, the Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) will serve its usual purpose of acting as a primary lead-up to the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and the Cox Plate, while The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2510m) offers a golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup.
The Gilgai Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) features two confirmed Everest runners and a host of aspirants for the world’s richest turf affair, while every Flemington race is essentially a trial for something bigger and better over the Melbourne Cup Carnival, beginning in four weeks.
Across at Hastings, the first Saturday in October usually marks the finale of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown with the Livamol Classic (Gr 1, 2040m).
However, Covid-19 has pushed the calendar back, meaning that today’s card instead features the second leg, the Windsor Park Plate (Gr 1, 1600m), which – despite being an open-age, open-sex event – features one of the best line-ups of mares imaginable on either side of the Tasman.
Jamie Richards’ champion mares Melody Belle (Commands) and Avantage are joined by New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) runner-up Two Illicit (Jimmy Choux) and New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Jennifer Eccles (Rip Van Winkle), with the quartet holding the first four spots in the market.
Incredibly, today will be the first time that Melody Belle and Avantage will cross paths, which seems remarkable given their respective career trajectories: they boast 14 Group 1 wins between them, both won the Karaka 2YO Million (Listed, 1200m) in consecutive years (Melody Belle in 2017, Avantage in 2018), both have been successful in Australia and both have spent most of their career racing against stakes company.
Avantage, who won the Nobby Bussell Memorial at her first start in October, 2017, enters as the slight $3.50 favourite ahead of Melody Belle at $3.90. She was defeated as a hot favourite in the Tarzino Trophy (Gr 1, 1400m), falling short to longshot Callsign Mav (Atlante) after gate issues, but she is favoured to score another Group 1 win.
“Avantage is going well,” Richards said earlier this week. “Her lead-up form is solid. She missed the kick a bit the other day but we think we’re on top of that.”
Melody Belle, who was a late entry for today’s feature, has her first start in New Zealand since winning the Livamol Classic on this day last year, having taken the Tarzino Trophy and the Windsor Park Plate too in a sweep of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown.
She subsequently won the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington and was just beaten by globetrotting Irish mare Magic Wand (Galileo) in the Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) a week later.
She returns to New Zealand after two below-par runs in Sydney this preparation, but owner John Galvin of Fortuna Syndications is confident that the real Melody Belle will be on show at Hastings today.
“It was a combination of things,” Galvin said of the decision to take the champion mare back to New Zealand. “She’d stayed in Australia because of the Covid situation, we were worried back then in March and April that if we brought her back to New Zealand, we wouldn’t be able to get her back to Australia again. So she stayed on there to prepare and then we had issues with the Melbourne situation, because we didn’t know if we could get her to Melbourne.
“Add in the fact that she hadn’t had much luck in her first two Sydney runs, so we just decided to bring her home. The syndicate members are just over the moon about the fact that they’ve got her back here in New Zealand and myself, the syndicate members and – I think – the New Zealand racing public are really looking forward to seeing her grace the racetrack again here.”
The Windsor Park Plate is scheduled for 4pm local time (2pm AEST), with the Australian Group 1 action kicking off with the Flight Stakes at 2:45pm AEST.