Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images)
Brent and Cherry Taylor’s Trelawney Stud enjoyed a rewarding day at Trentham where the Waikato farm celebrated a winning double and collected further black type with a future member of their broodmare band.
Promising farm graduate Thunder In Motion was successful in the opening event on Sunday’s card before the Trelawney silks were carried to victory by speedster Miss Jones and stakes placegetter Astoria Brooke.
Per Incanto’s son Thunder In Motion only had two rivals to account for in thefracclub.com 3YO (1400m) and he dispatched them in style at just his second appearance.
Prepared by Mark Forbes, the son of Per Incanto had finished runner-up on debut and connections are now weighing up a late nomination for a crack at the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
Thunder In Motion was a star of Trelawney’s 2025 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft when he sold for $700,000 to China’s Shijiazhuang Hongtao Horse Breeding.
The homebred’s dam is the Rock ‘N’ Pop mare Joan’s A Jett, a half-sister to the Gr.1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) winner Allez Wonder.
She produced a filly by Chaldean last season and most recently a colt by Sword Of State.
Trelawney will offer a quartet of youngsters at next month’s Ready to Run Sale but aren’t expecting the fireworks of last year.
“We don’t have a Thunder In Motion among them, he is a very good-looking horse who sold exceedingly well and the chat about him has been strong for some time,” Brent Taylor said.
“We’ve got a good, solid bunch this time and hopefully they all find homes.”
Trelawney will present colts by Ocean Park, Lots 249 and 435, with the former out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Exquisite Choice and the latter a son of I Am Invincible’s daughter Precious Colours.
Lot 40 is by Proisir and also out of a Redoute’s Choice mare in Special Light from the family of multiple Group One winner Fangirl, while Lot 458 is a Circus Maximus gelding is out of the Fastnet Rock mare Rockadubai.
Dam of the Gr.3 South Australia Fillies’ Classic (2500m) winner Chabaud, Rockadubai is a three-quarter sister to Sea Siren, who was successful three times at the elite level.
Meanwhile, the Cody Cole-trained Miss Jones opened her spring campaign on a top note in the Grant Plumbing Handicap (1000m) for the fifth win of her 17-start career and third on the course.
A daughter of Deep Field, she was a A$300,000 purchase out of Kitchwin Hills’ draft at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and is a daughter of the Snitzel mare Vienna Miss, winner of the Listed Adelaide Guineas (1600m).
“She will improve as she didn’t have a trial, so we’ll be looking for black type with her, maybe in the Counties Bowl (Gr.3, 1100m),” Taylor said.
“She’s really found her form since coming to New Zealand.”
Miss Jones was a multiple placegetter for Rosehill trainers Richard and Will Freedman before relocating to Cole’s Matamata quarters.
Cole also prepared homebred American Pharoah mare Astoria Brooke to win her first four races and she’s since doubled her tally from Tony Pike’s stable.
She claimed top honours in the Listed Kaimai Stakes (1600m) before overcoming an interrupted run to finish third in Sunday’s Gr.3 Thompson Handicap.
“Cody did a great job with her and now Tony is,” Taylor said.
“She’s been quite a slow burn and has really found form and didn’t have a lot of luck at Trentham. Her soundness is great now, she’s quite a heavy mare.”
Astoria Brooke is a daughter of the Iffraaj mare Astor, successful in the Listed Mufhasa Stakes (1300m) and runner-up in the Gr.3 Mongolian Kahn Trophy (1200m).
She is also the dam of Circus Maximus’ son Gus The Great, a $100,000 RTR Sale graduate and a two-time winner from Joseph Pride’s Warwick Farm stable, and High Goal.
The Sword of State gelding was sold by Trelawney for $400,000 at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale and has placed twice in a handful of starts for Roger James and Robert Wellwood.
