Issue 8, May 2009
BENICIO: The 2005 Victoria Derby winner who is standing at Vinery, Scone. Photo: Lachlan Cunningham (SMG).
Vic Derby has its place The Group 1 AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m, Flemington) has been much maligned in recent years – especially by some north of the Murray scribes who want to rate the AJC version of the Classic as the true test to find the best 3YO stayer in the country. The simple fact that the AJC Australian Derby (2400m, Randwick) is run in the autumn, some six months after the Flemington race, gives it a tremendous advantage, and naturally it is more than likely that a more mature, established 3YO will win, against a more mature bunch of rivals bolstered by the presence of the best New Zealand 3YOs who now miss the Melbourne Classic in preference to their own Derby, run in March. The strong argument exists that the Victoria Derby, run so early in the season, should be run over 2000m – the same distance as the Kentucky
Derby at Churchill Downs. I agree, but that’s another argument for another forum. In simple terms, there should be no comparison. Having said that, the wonderful, and somewhat hair-raising, almost all-theway win of Rebel Raider in the Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m) at Morphettville last Saturday, definitely franked the 2008 Victoria Derby form – Rebel Raider won the Vic Derby at 100/1, beating the odds-on favourite Whobegotyou. It’s not the first time in recent years that the Victoria Derby winner has trained on to do something else important. In 2007, the 2006 Derby winner Efficient won the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington, and the 2003 winner Elvstroem won the 2004 Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) before proving himself a top weightfor-age horse here, in Dubai
and in Europe. Injury has curtailed the career of the 2008 winner Kibbutz, who is now trained by Jarrod McLean in the healing waters at Warrnambool. It will be interesting if the Golan gelding can have his career resurrected. Unfortunately, the 2005 winner Benicio was injured and didn’t race again. The son of More Than Ready and the Danehill mare Mannington is now standing at stud at Vinery, near Scone. Vinery’s general manager Peter Orton marvels at the how much Benicio has changed since he first stood at stud in 2006. “He has filled out and strengthened, he looks just like a Danehill,” Orton told me recently. Orton (bias aside) rates Benicio a serious chance of making it as a sire. Orton believes that but for injury, Benicio could have emerged as a WFA star. DANNY POWER
Silent Surround’s win in last Saturday’s Group 3 SAJC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1600m), at Morphettville, was not only a landmark first Stakes winner for first-season sire Face Value (by Red Ransom) but also an example of how a dour New Zealand family can be “improved” by a double injection of good, old Aussie speed blood. Silent Surround is a bay 2YO filly who cost her owners (which includes trainer Bill Smart) $36,000 at the 2008 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. She is the fourth live foal of the former fast Rory’s Jester mare Biography who won two races over 1000m and 1200m. Biography obviously threw to her sire, as her dam Ma Vie, is by champion sire of stayers Sir Tristram (by Sir Ivor) from a mare by another champion sire of stayers Zamazaan (by Exbury). Ma Vie also is the dam of the former quality stayer Station Hand, who is the opposite to Biography, in that he threw to his dam’s pedigree rather than the speed influence of his sire Rancher (by Brave Lad). Station Hand won the 1994 Group 3 T.S. Carlyon Cup (2000m) at Caulfield. Face Value stands at Lindsay Park, Angaston. He is the second first-season son of Red Ransom to sire a Stakes winner this season, joining Headway’s sire Charge Forward. Face Value was a quality juvenile who trained on to run second behind In Top Swing in the 2003 Group 1 Caulfield Guineas. His service fee will remain unchanged in 2009 at $6600 (inc. GST)
the Group 2 Magic Night Stakes (1200m, Rosehill), and she could become the filly of the spring. Rebel Raider’s half-brother Shamoline Warrior (ex Picholine, by Dehere) was sensational winning his debut last week at Sale for trainer Mark Kavanagh. The colt is being set for the spring Classics. Sharmardal stands at the Darley’s Hunter Valley farm for a 2009 fee of $27,500 (inc. GST).
WORDS BY DANNY POWER
Dane Shadow’s fee is set Hunter Valley farm Kitchwin Hills has set Dane Shadow’s 2009 service fee at $16,500 (inc. GST). Last season the son of Danehill and champion mare Slight Chance (by Centaine) stood for $7,700, so the stud has bucked the trend of stallion discounts by more than doubling his fee after Dane Shadow’s first crop of 2YOs have shown tremendous promise. Kitchwin Hills’ stud manager Mick Malone said the fee increase not only reflects the demand for Dane Shadow from broodmare owners but also the high regard the young stallion is held by the stud. “We have set his 2009fee to reflect the growth in quality of mares that will go to him, but it also has placed him perfectly for those breeders wishing to use an in-demand rising star, with a limited book, at a fee that will give them a commercial return at yearling sale time. Kitchwin understands as well as anyone the importance of return on investment for breeders in creating a long term success story and hence he will cover a limited book,” Malone said. Dane Shadow has started his stud career in sensational style. From only 59 first crop foals, an incredible 33 of them have raced or trialled, and nearly 60 per cent of those have pocketed a cheque. He has sired four winners to date – three of them smart metro winners Shadow Miss, Shadow Assassin and Shellscrape. Malone said that Kitchwin Hills will support DS with some of the stud’s best mares.
Caviar is out for Bel Esprit SHAMARDAL’S GIRL: Marquardt as a yearling in New Zealand.
Shamardal is a surprise of 2009 I doubt many breeders expected Darley’s Shamardal to be vying for first season sire honours, but the son of Giant’s Causeway (by Storm Cat) is leaving quite an impact. Shamardal sired four individual winners in the space of only eight days – Femina Fashion (Ipswich, April 24), Shamoline Warrior (Sale, April 30), Crash’m (Wyong, April 30) and Wallinger (Morphettville, May 2) – to launch into firstseason sire prominence. He has joined Not A Single Doubt (by Redoute’s Choice), as of May 6, on the top of the firstseason sires’ (winners) leaderboard with a total of seven winners. Fastnet Rock (by Danehill) has six and a bunch is on four – Charge Forward (by Red Ransom), Oratorio (by Stravinsky), Dane Shadow (by Danehill), Al Maher (by Danehill), Lion Heart (by Tale Of The Cat) and Elvstroem (by Danehill). Shamardal (b h 2002, ex Helsinki, by Machiavellian) was a racetrack sensation, winning six of his seven starts including the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes (1400m) at two and three
Group 1 wins at three, including the St. James Palace Stakes (1600m) at Royal Ascot (York) and the French Derby (2100m). He is easily the best son of Giant’s Causeway, a stallion who started his career with a splash, but is now standing in Argentina. Shamardal arrived in Australia at a time when his sire, who stood at Coolmore Stud, was proving a disappointment, so it was a tough sell for Darley despite the bay’s wonderful record. Shamardal served 108 mares, producing 83 foals at a fee of $55,000 (inc. GST). The “Giant’s Causeway factor” played into some buyers’ minds when the Shamardal yearlings went through the ring in 2008, although 46 were sold at a healthy average of $97,000. They were impressive, strong, athletic individuals, and importantly, they didn’t possess the offset knee trait of his sire and of his grandsire Storm Cat. The best of the Shamardals so far is the Patinack Farmowned Marquandt (f ex Centrefold Angel, by Centaine) who was very unlucky in the Golden Slipper (sixth behind Phelan Ready) after finishing second behind Indian Ocean in
Every stallion needs that “big horse” to launch his career – just look what Weekend Hussler did for Hussonet. Eliza Park’s Bel Esprit has proven himself a good sire by consistently leaving good, quality winners, especially horses with his pace. Bel Mer (ex Drop Anchor, by At Talaq) became his first Group 1 winner when she won the Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m, Morphettville) on March 21, and two other fillies Vivacious Spirit and Gabbidon have won at Group level. Bel Esprit might have found his “big horse” in the shape of a very big filly in Black Caviar, the awesome six-lengths winner last Saturday of the Listed Blue Sapphire Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield. Black Caviar is from Helsinge, a daughter of fellow Eliza Park stallion Desert Sun and former brilliant mare Scandinavia (by Snippets from Song Of Norway). This is the family of Eliza Park’s young sire Magnus (Flying SpurScandinavia) and the Darleyowned G2 winning 3YO colt Wilander (Exceed And ExcelScandinavia) and The Thoroughbred Magazine Club’s unnamed 2YO filly (ex Song Of The Sun) –Black Caviar is bred to run. DANNY POWER