Photo: Bruno Cannatelli
The season is only two months old and already New Zealand-bred horses have claimed four Group One events in Australia.
Last weekend was a bonza, with not only two Group One winners, but six stakes winners in total (and a Group Two placing thrown in the mix for good measure).
Like the 55 individual New Zealand-bred stakes winners in Australia last season, this term these horses cover a range of ages, distances and sires. The two Group One winners were six-year-old middle-distance geldings, while another six-year-old gelding won at Group Two level.
At Flemington Smokin’ Romans (Ghibellines [AUS] - Inferno) smoked them in the Gr.1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m), trouncing his rivals by an impressive one and a half lengths. The White Robe Lodge bred six-year-old went into the race off the back of an impressive win in the Gr.3 MRC Foundation Cup just two weeks ago and proved that win was no fluke.
That puts him into contention for the Gr.1 MRC Caulfield Cup on October 15, and with a lightweight of 51.5kgs, he will have the services of in-form jockey Jamie Kah.
Smokin’ Romans is raced by a group of kiwis that includes Wellington branch member Don Frampton, in whose colours he races. Frampton has previously raced Group One winners Bounding and Trounced and bought into Smokin’ Romans following the 2018 yearling sale at Karaka.
Smokin’ Romans is the third foal of the Yamanin Vital stakes winning mare Inferno (ex Emerald Fire) who won 10 races including the Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup twice, and was bred by stalwart South Island stud White Robe Lodge.
Inferno is out of the four time winning mare Emerald Fire (by Honor Grades [USA]) who also left Ortem Fire, the joint top filly on the 2012-13 3YO New Zealand Free Handicap, and the stakes placed winners Unfurl and Ronnie.
She in turn was out of Gem Fire (by Noble Bijou [GB]) who won six races and was placed at listed level before leaving four winners. Her dam was the stakes winning Fraxinus (FR) mare Firefly who won nine times and was Group One placed in the New Zealand Oaks and the 1000 Guineas.
Smokin’ Romans is the first Group One winner for the Sharmadal (USA) stallion Ghibellines, but is by no means the first from White Robe Lodge who over the last 50 years has produced dozens of Group One horses, including the winners of the Melbourne, Caulfield, Wellington and New Zealand Cups.
Saturday’s second Group One winner was No Compromise (Pins [AUS] - Baggy Green [AUS]) who was successful in the time honoured The Metropolitan (2400m). It was a well-deserved win for the six-year-old gelding trained by Chris Waller and bred by Currahgmore’s Gordon Cunningham.
He is raced by Grant and Patricia Thurlow and was originally trained by Grant’s brother Bill in Taranaki, where he won two races, before adding a further five wins in Sydney including the Gr.2 Queens Cup at Rosehill earlier this year, and was placed in the Gr.3 Newcastle Gold Cup and the Listed Parramatta Cup and Carrington Stakes.
His dam Baggy Green (AUS) is the joint reigning Broodmare of the Year, thanks to the deeds of Tofane (by Ocean Park) who won the GR.1 MRC C F Orr Stakes at Caufield and had minor placings in the Gr.1 MRC Memsie Handicap, the Toorak Handicap and the MRC Futurity Stakes as well as placings in the Gr.1 Makybe Diva at Flemington and the All Aged Stakes at Randwick.
Another of Baggy Green’s foals Bernaud (by Reliable Man[FR]), was narrowly beaten in the Gr.1 ATC Australian Derby and was placed in the Gr.3 ATC Gloaming Stakes and the Gr.2 Tulloch Stakes.
Baggy Green was a winner herself, and she is a three quarter-sister to the multiple Group One winner Funstar and a half-sister to the Queensland Oaks winner Youngstar. Like her best performing daughter, Baggy Green was recently sold to Yulong Investments’ Written Tycoon Partnership with the Australian stud going to $1.75 million to secure her.
Earlier in the day at Randwick, the Per Incanto (USA) gelding Lost And Running made easy work of his rivals in the Gr.2 Premiere Stakes (1200m), an important lead up race to The Everest on October 15, where he finished fourth last year.
From 16 career starts, Lost And Running has now recorded nine wins and three placings, earning just under A$3 million in stakes. He was bred by JML Bloodstock’s Lib Petagna and raised at Blandford Lodge in Matamata. Petagna retains an interest in the gelding, who races in the colours of Carl Holt, with partners including Frank and Christine Cook and John O’Shea’s wife Isabel.
One of 24 individual stakes winners by high-flying Little Avondale Stud stallion Per Incanto, Lost And Running is the only foal to race out of the Danroad (AUS) mare Dreamlife, a sibling to stakes winners Kiss Me Ketut, Fast Love and A Chance To Dream.
To add to the celebrations at Little Avondale Stud in Masterton, where Per Incanto (USA) holds pride of place on their stallion roster, farm favourite Roch’N’Horse ran a slashing second in the Gr.2 Gilgai Stakes at Flemington, behind Private Eye.
Also at Flemington, last season’s Group One winning two-year-old She’s Licketysplit (Turn Me Loose - She’s Slinky) improved on her last start third in the Gr.2 Guineas Prelude at Caulfield a fortnight ago to take out the Gr.2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m).
She will once again tackle a mile when she lines up in the Gr.1 1000 Guineas at Caulfield in about 10 days’ time.
The filly is providing a ride of a lifetime for her breeders Nick Hewson and Dean Hawkins, who race her with their wives Claire and Tee, along with Jess and Matt Kilkenny and Matt Delahunty. From just six starts she has now won four races including the Gr.1 ATR Sistema Stakes and the Gr.3 Northland Breeders’ Stakes.
She’s Licketysplit is out of the stakes-placed Handsome Ransom (AUS) mare She’s Slinky who is from a family that extends back to Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup winner Classic Babe and her Gr.2 Waikato Cup (2400m) winning daughter Passchendaele. She is from the second crop of the young Windsor Park Stud sire Turn Me Loose.
Another Windsor Park bred youngster rounded off the massive afternoon of racing for New Zealand-bred horses when Mr Maestro (Savabeel [AUS] - Let Me Roar) won the Listed Super Impose Stakes (1800m). Like She’s Licketysplit, he is trained by Andrew Forsman and is owned in New Zealand and his New Zealand-based owners include former Auckland Racing Club board members Brian Stevenson and John Stubbs, along with his wife Rosie.
Stakes placed as a two-year-old, Mr Maestro was having his fourth start in Melbourne this Spring and went into the Super Impose Stakes on the back of a win at Flemington over 1800 metres last month. He is now on track for a tilt at the VRC Derby at the end of the month.
Sold by Windsor Park Stud for $100,000 as a yearling, he is by Savabeel out of Let Me Roar (Rip Van Winkle [IRE] - Lioness), a stakes placed, six-time winning half-sister to the VRC Derby winner Lion Tamer, trained by Forsman’s mentor and former training partner Murray Baker for his breeder Phil Bayly. She is a descendant of the three-time Group One winning mare Blue Denim – who is also the third dam of the Champion Three-Year-Old Harris Tweed.
The weekend’s racing was summed up succinctly in a tweet from New Zealand Bloodstock’s Mike Kneebone, it read; Astute Buyers: To get a Lost And Running be a Mr Maestro and get a Karaka catalogue Lickety Split there really is No Compromise. #wherewinningbegins. -Michelle Saba, NZTBA
