Worth the wait
Building a healthy race record of six wins in ten starts, Islington Lass (Proisir) clearly has plenty of ability and her handy win in Saturday’s Rangitikei Cup (Listed, 1600m) won’t be her last.
Her owner has been patient. So patient that the mare did not race, or even trial, at two or three and did not make her race debut until January of 2023 when she was nearly half way through her fourth year.
That day at Otaki she finished strongly to get her winning career underway and two starts later at the same track made it two wins from three starts. A Trentham second followed by her only unplaced run then saw her rested until last November.
Now five, she won back-to-back and was rested again until last month. Her three runs this preparation resulted in a Benchmark 75 win, a hampered second in her first attempt at black-type in the Anzac Mile (Listed, 1600m) and now her maiden win at stakes level.
Michael McNab positioned her handy but wide mostly, putting her in contention from the 600 metres. She was widest but one at the top of the straight and cruised forward to be within a length of the lead inside the 300 metres. On her outer Lincoln Falls (Dundeel) was a half length in-front inside the 200 metres but she levelled up and near the line was doing better, scoring with something in hand.
Although she will be six in the spring, the mare is so lightly raced she has plenty of legs to expand her record. The Hastings Triple Crown series and especially the Arrowfield Plate (Gr 1, 1600m), looks a worthwhile target.
Islington Lass represents the third crop of Rich Hill Stud’s Proisir (Choisir) and takes the stallion’s total to 18 stakes winners. She is the third winner from her winning dam, Relentless Miss (Montjeu), a half-sister to New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Boundless (Van Nistelrooy). The latter also scored a further three Group races and is a top producer of Waikato Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) victress Cheaperthandivorce (Savabeel) and Hawkes Bay Cup (Listed, 2200m) winner Richie McHorse (Redoute’s Choice).
The mare has some heritage to live up to. Her third dam is Brisbane Cup Limitless (Sir Tristram), an 11 times winner. Take a look at her dams’ sires. She has a lovely combo of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), Star Way (Star Appeal), Sir Tristram (Sir Ivor) and Zamazaan (Exbury). Who is to say she won’t get 2000 metres or further?
Happy birthday
Who didn’t notice that one of the races on the Trentham card was named Happy Birthday Garry Chittick? No doubt Chittick did have an enjoyable day, enhanced by his Dark Jewel Classic (Gr 3, 1400m) winner Fall For Cindy (Sacred Falls) at Scone on Saturday. The mare races solely in his name.
Chittick’s day could only have been improved if son Mark’s I Wish I Win (Savabeel) had prevailed in a close finish in the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) but Fall For Cindy did herself much good and will be another well performed mare to join the Waikato Stud broodmare band when her racing days are over.
The Classic was the four-year-old’s fifth win in 15 starts. At three she won twice and this season has added wins at Warwick Farm and Hawkesbury (in a dead-heat), her lead up into Saturday’s breakthrough black-type success.
Fall For Cindy had no favours in the running and was shuffled back to midfield and was stuck on the fence until the top of the straight. With a weaving run she flew between runners at the 200 metre mark and finished strongly along the inner.
Her dam has produced three winners from three to race and is a Savabeel (Zabeel) half-sister to Group 2 sprinter-miler Sports Illustrated (Fast ‘n’ Famous) who was twice Group 1-placed. Her granddam, Flemington Group 2-placed Pin Up (Pins), is a half-sister to world traveller and five-times Group 1 victor Starcraft (Soviet Star).
Starcraft made quite a name for himself in Australasia, winning the Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) but rose to another level when taking on and beating some of the best milers in Europe. His wins in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (Gr 1, 1600m) gave enormous exposure to the New Zealand industry. He defeated the great Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Subsequently, his dam Flying Floozie (Pompeii Court) was named Broodmare of the Year on three successive occasions.
Fall For Cindy is bred on the same Sacred Falls (O’Reilly) – Savabeel cross as Group 1, $5.2 million earner as Icebath. As Savabeel looks to rack up a ninth New Zealand Sire premiership, his 145 stakes winners is a number with which we are most familiar. However, his stakes producing daughters are also looking ominous. That number is 31, including recent Hong Kong Group 1 winner Beauty Eternal (Starspangledbanner).
Add another
The 31st stakes winner from a Savabeel mare is Gringotts (Per Incanto), easy winner of Doomben’s Members’ Handicap (Listed, 1600m). A handy fourth before straightening, Gringotts sidled up and shot to the lead at the 200 metres and gave nothing else much of a chance to the line, his seventh win and maiden stakes win in a career spanning 13 starts. Gringotts began his career in Victoria where he won the last three of his five starts there. This season, further north at four, he took a few starts to find form, landed a Benchmark 78 at Randwick then ran third in similar company before a spell.
This preparation he is undefeated in three starts, namely a Benchmark 88 at Rosehill, the Tamworth Cup (1400m) and set the scene for even bigger fish with Saturday’s impressive win. Surely a Queensland carnival Group win is close at hand, judging from this latest effort.
Gringotts represents the 29th stakes for Little Avondale Stud’s Per Incanto (Street Cry) and is from a family that made huge news just last month.
His half-sister is Listed placed Millefiori (Iffraaj), a seven times winner and they are the only two to race from the unraced Miss Bluebell (Savabeel). Gringotts’ granddam Operavega (Stravinsky) is a half-sister to dual Listed winner Vegas Showgirl (Al Akbar), the dam of 25 times Group 1 megastar Winx (Street Cry).
Those with a breeding bent will already have spotted the connection. Winx is by Street Cry (Machiavellian), the sire of Per Incanto. A nick well worth pursuing one would think.
It’s not unusual
Charging through the grades in New South Wales is New Zealand graduate Unusual Legacy (Unusual Heat) who won on debut last November at Otaki before being snapped up by Australian buyers.
The four-year-old has added three more wins in just five starts from the Chris Waller stable, winning two of three in January and February then ran an unlucky fourth at Rosehill fresh up before Saturday’s Benchmark 78 win.
Unusual Legacy is a very determined customer. He just pins his ears back and runs. In Saturday’s win he had to find his way between runners and when clear drove to the line strongly.
His sire Unusual Suspect (Unusual Heat) stands at Letham Thoroughbreds, a family stud owned by Nigel and Adaire Auret near Wanganui. The stallion won at Grade 1 level and earned US $1.5 million and from limited opportunities has sired 42 winners from 71 to race.
Unusual Legacy is the fourth winner from Celtic Legacy (O’Reilly) while his granddam Pearl’s Legacy (Grosvenor) is a half-sister to champion Two-Year-Old Pompeii Pearl (Pompeii Court) who was raced by the Aurets.
Gavelhouse buys
Last week, Kiwi Chronicles covered the plight of the small breeder, about the black-type achieved by Imprevu (Wrote) for the Lunn family. Further inspiration for the hobby breeder can be found via the last two Saturdays, firstly in the South Australian Fillies Classic (Gr 3, 2500m) which resulted in a New Zealand-bred quinella when Positivity (Almanzor) was a clear winner but second was Zambezi Khan (Mongolian Khan).
Zambezi Khan, the winner of three races, was backing up, seven days on from a solid third placing at Caulfield on May 4th. At Morphettville in the Group 3 she slipped clear soon after straightening and although caught by the winner at the 200 metres she never gave up and was well clear of the third runner home.
Her second placing has given Central Districts breeder Peter Izett quite a thrill. Izett didn’t breed Zambezi Khan but he did purchase her dam Zafiki (Makfi) fairly recently. Izett has enjoyed great success as an owner and breeder but has scaled back to just Zafiki and a Proisir (Choisir) mare, named Celestial Crown, trying to breed a winner and trying to achieve that elusive black-type.
Izett found Zafiki on Gavelhouse in September 2021. Her Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor) filly, Zambezi Khan, had changed hands two weeks prior for $5000. Zafiki was empty and in 2022 she foaled a colt by The Bold One (Fastnet Rock). She missed last year but Izett is hoping she will produce a filly for him this year after visiting Derryn (Hinchinbrook).
Zafiki won twice in Australia and her dam Zingo (Zabeel) was a Listed winner of the Rain Lover Plate (Listed, 2500m), run, somewhat coincidentally, at Morphettville and ran second in the South Australian St Leger (Listed, 2500m). Zingo’s sister Kadesa (Zabeel) is the dam of Scapolo (Bachelor Duke). He won 20 races including the Couplands Bakeries Mile (Gr 2, 1600m) and two Group 3s.
Izett also found Celestial Crown via Gavelhouse in 2020 and for the second week in succession has seen a stakes result to improve the standing of his only two mares when her year older brother, Nikau Spur (Proisir) ran a slashing third in the Members’ Handicap (Listed, 1600m) on Saturday at Doomben.
As a youngster Celestial Crown showed enormous promise winning two of three trials but went amiss and never made it to the races. She is now a sister to a Listed placed winner of seven. Nikau Spur’s and Celestial Crown’s dam is Sarsarun (Ustinov), a Listed winner of seven from the family of Highland Reel (Galileo) and Starspangledbanner (Choisir).
She has proved a good breeder for Izett, producing three consecutive foals. Her last foal is by Wyndspelle (Iffraaj) and she visited The Bold One last spring.