Vagrant breaks through at stakes level
Four-year-old mare Vagrant (Pariah) provided her sire with a second stakes winner when she completed a winning hat-trick in barnstorming style at Caulfield yesterday in the Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
Jumping from gate two, the Mitch Freedman-trained Vagrant settled at the back of the eight-mare field and was still some six lengths behind tearaway leader Penthouse (Capitalist) entering the home turn.
She was still two lengths behind on the fence at the 200 metres, but once into the clear the mare charged home past a tiring Penthouse to win by a length.
Bred by Twin Hills Stud’s Olly Tait and sold to her trainer from the farm’s draft at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $130,000, Vagrant also kept a strong run going for Freedman and jockey Beau Mertens.
Freedman has taken his stakes tally from four to seven this season, and with yesterday’s win all three of those recent winners have been ridden by Mertens.
The run started when Attrition (Churchill) brought a first Group 1 success for trainer and jockey in Caulfield’s Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) on October 14. Skybird (Exosphere) then won her first three starts culminating in the MVRC Fillies Classic (Gr 2, 1600m) on Cox Plate Day, before taking third in the MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m).
“There’s always plenty of confidence when I’m throwing Beau on at the moment,” Freedman said yesterday.
“He doesn’t make too many wrong decisions for us, he understands what we’re about, and how we like to do things. When she was ducking and weaving back on the inside and there’d been a strong tempo in front of her, I knew she was the fit horse on the scene and the horse in form.
“We were just hoping she could get out and get motoring and that she did. She was pretty impressive at the finish.”
Vagrant’s win followed successive 1400-metre victories, second-up at Caulfield and then at Flemington. Freedman said he’d assess Vagrant’s immediate future targets now she had enhanced her value with a black–type victory.
“The noms were held open here for this race. We threw her in and thought she was a chance,” he said. “She’s got that on the board now. We’ll assess all the options.
“I can’t thank my team enough at home. They do a terrific job. She’s had a few troubles with her feet since her last run. My farrier Stephen Byrne has done a ripping job with her.
“She’s a very gritty mare. She loves winning, she’s very determined, and you can’t teach that.”
Vagrant, who’s now won six of 16 starts, is the best of two winners from as many to race for the handy Melbourne city-winning mare My Obsession (Lonhro), a half-sister to Given (Canny Lad) – who also won the Bellmaine Stakes in 2004, though it was then known as the Hyderabad RC Stakes and run as a Listed event.
Given’s daughter Bequests (Stravinsky) is the dam of Group 1 New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Ugo Foscolo (Zacinto).
A half-brother to Vagrant by Twin Hills sire Peltzer (So You Think) sold to Champion Thoroughbreds late in Book 1 at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale last month for $80,000. My Obsession was covered by Justify (Scat Daddy) last September.
Vagrant is the second stakes-winner, after Swiss Exile, for Pariah (Redoute’s Choice), who has 58 winners from 121 runners with three crops racing.