Volpe Veloce Remains Unbeaten After Taking Karaka 3YO Mile
Coming from well back in the straight, Volpe Veloce showed grit and determination to defeat Heroic Valour (Fastnet Rock) with Jon Snow (Iffraaj) a close up third. Time was 1:35.01 with the favourite, Group One winner Sacred Elixir (Pour Moi), in fourth place.
Twice a winner at two years last season, Volpe Veloce has won from 1200 metres to 1600 metres, three of her earlier successes in stakes races, the ARC Eight Carat Classic (Gr 2, 1600m), Eulogy Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) and the Castletown Stakes (Listed, 1200m).
Bred in NSW by well known racing identity Nick Vass, Volpe Veloce went through the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale at the Gold Coast in 2014 where she was bought by New Zealand’s Lyndhurst Farm for $120,000. Lyndhurst Farm subsequently re-sold the filly for NZ$240,000 at the 2015 New Zealand Premier Yearling Sale and while she is yet to quite recoup her yearling cost in prize money, she is well on the way and has increased greatly her value as a potential broodmare.
After breeding Volpe Veloce, Nick Vass sold her stakes-winning dam Bardego (Barathea) who subsequently foaled an as yet unraced brother, Raposa Rapida (Foxwedge), in 2014, another Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) filly in 2015 and a filly by Helmet (Exceed And Excel) last year. The Foxwedge 2015 filly is to be offered as Lot 365 by Rushton Park at the upcoming Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne on 28 February.
Bardego’s foals before Volpe Veloce resulted in three winners, best being Black Opal Stakes (Listed, 1200m) winner and high class sprinter Delago Bolt (Delago Brom) whose career was cut short by injury. Bardego’s dam Devil’s Gold (Bellotto) won three metropolitan races in Sydney and was stakes placed before producing seven winners.
A brilliant, early two-year-old when winner of the 2001 Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (Listed, 900m) and the Blue Diamond Preview (Fillies) (Gr 3, 1000m), Bardego is by Barathea (Sadler’s Wells), one of the speedier sons of his great sire and winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) and the Breeders’ Cup Mile (Gr 1, 8f) in the United States.
Barathea spent four full seasons shuttling to Widden Stud in NSW in the mid-1990s where he proved a qualified success, leaving such stakes winners as Porto Roca (Coolmore Classic (Gr 1,1500m)), Easy Rocking (Salinger Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m)) and a successful sire in Queensland, Gold Wells, high class Western Australian performer Shirazamatazz and several others.
Results for Barathea in the Northern Hemisphere were similar to those in Australia with dual Group One-winning sire Tobougg the best of his European progeny.
Like his sire Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer), Barathea has achieved great success as a broodmare sire and in his case his record is far better than his performance as a sire of winners. Barathea’s daughters have to date foaled 81 stakes winners, among them 12 at Group One level such as Hunter’s Light (Dubawi), Monterosso (Dubawi) out of Porto Roca, Arabian Queen (Dubawi), New Zealand sire Jakkalberry (Storming Home), Shareta (Sinndar), Voila Ici (Daylami), Crackerjack King (Shamardal) and Konigstiger (Tiger Hill).
Major winners from Barathea mares in Australia and New Zealand include the import Qewy (Street Cry), Kittens (Redoute’s Choice), Tall Ship (Sea The Stars), Misstrum (Stratum), Jerezana (Lonhro), Georgette Silk (Flying Spur), Canali (Exceed And Excel) and Royal Reign (Viscount).
Volpe Veloce comes from the first crop of Group One-winning sprinter Foxwedge, the foundation sire for the fast expanding Newgate Farm in NSW.
So far Foxwedge’s best runners have been fillies: Volpe Veloce, Foxplay and Kentucky Miss with Foxplay bred along similar lines to Volpe Veloce in that her dam Butters (El Prado) is by a son of Sadler’s Wells.
With three stakes winners and seven stakes placegetters among a worldwide tally of 55 winners to date, Foxwedge has made a satisfactory start to his stud career and has also made an impact in Europe after shuttling north for several seasons.
While an outcross within four generations, Volpe Veloce has four crosses of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) in her pedigree.