Vega Magic Shows He Is Ready To Climb Everest
The big, powerful five-year-old gelding defeated Black Heart Bart (Blackfriars), another ex Perth star, by a length and three quarters with Japanese-bred Tosen Stardom (Deep Impact) just a head further back in third place. Race time was 01:23.36.
Vega Magic and Black Heart Bart are great advertisements for the strength of Perth racing and are the latest in a long line of top class horses to come from Western Australia since the 1960s with the ability to win major races in Melbourne, a list which includes Aquanita (Wateringbury), Placid Ark (Arkenstone), Northerly (Serheed) and Miss Andretti (Ihtiram) to name but a small selection.
The record to date of Vega Magic is impressive, 12 wins from 17 starts, which have pushed his prize money earnings past the $2,000,000 mark. The Memsie was his second Group One success having won The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) in May shortly after joining the Hayes/Dabernig stable.
He now has five black type victories, the first two recorded in Perth. Although he is yet to race in the Sydney direction, Vega Magic now looms as a strong contender for The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on 14 October although he is still to secure a slot.
Bred by West Australian Wally Daly who races him with a family member, Vega Magic is far the best horse resulting from four shuttle seasons for his sire Lope De Vega (Shamardal), who stood at Patinack Farm in NSW between 2011 and 2014.Some 334 living foals resulted in Australia but to date the only other stakes winners among them are French Fern, who won the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), Group Three winner Santa Ana Lane and Man Of His Word, a Listed winner in Brisbane.
Lope De Vega, now permanently based at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland, has fared rather better in Europe where his best runners are Group One winners Belardo and Jemayel among a career total of 28 black type winners. The latest to join the list being two-year-old filly Soustraction who last Sunday captured the Prix d’Aumale (Gr 3, 1600m) at Chantilly. Another of Lope De Vega’s feature winners is The Right Man, a Group One winner in Dubai and a multiple stakes winner in France.
Belardo, winner of the Dewhurst Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) at two years and of the Lockinge Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at four years, retired to stud in Ireland in 2017 and is currently covering at Haunui Farm in New Zealand.
Linebred 3 x 3 to Machiavellian (Mr Prospector), Lope De Vega was the champion middle distance three-year-old in France in 2010 after completing the Classic double of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (Gr 1, 1600m) at Longchamp before taking the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr 1, 2100m) at Chantilly. He also won races over 1400 metres and 1500 metres as a two-year-old.Vega Magic’s dam Admirable (Magic Albert), also bred by Wally Daly, won two sprint races in Perth, one as a two-year-old. Her other foals include useful Perth winner Mireille (Husson) and Vega Dior (Lope De Vega), a winning, year younger sister to Vega Magic. Admirable was due to foal early this season to Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor).Starlight Empress (Century), third dam of Vega Magic, comes from an old South Australian family long associated with the late Bart Cummings, as she is a sister to the great trainer’s 1979 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Century Miss (Century) whose champion sire was perhaps the best sprinter prepared by the South Australian born trainer.
Their unraced dam Gay Chorus (Matrice) was by the high-class sprinter Matrice (Masthead) who created history in the 1972-73 season by becoming Australia’s champion sire, the only South Australia-based horse ever to achieve that honour.
Vega Magic carries a dash of Danehill (Danzig) blood through Danewin (Danehill), sire of his second dam Starglow Express, and it should be noted that Lope De Vega has developed some affinity with Danehill as Belardo is out of a Danehill mare, and others among his stakes winners with Danehill in their backgrounds are French Fern, Santa Ana Lane and Royal Razalma.