By Bren O'Brien
Promising 3-year-old Mr Quickie has been the banner horse for Widden Stud sire Shamus Award's first crop this season and owner Wylie Dalziel is confident he can continue on his winning ways as he looks for four straight wins at Pakenham on Saturday.
Mr Quickie looks a typically progressive Darren Weir horse, winning four of his six races in his first campaign, including an impressive win in a mid-week race at Sandown over 1800m last month.
Dalziel, who bought the horse for $115,000 at the 2017 Gold Coast Magic Millions and syndicated him, said Mr Quickie had taken noticeable improvement after stepping up in distance last time out.
"He was one of those progressive types. Weiry said he's not the best track worker so that didn’t give him a lot of confidence going into his races, and if you look at his wins before Sandown, he only just got there," he told RSN. "Whereas the 1800m, he just relished it."
Wylie Dalziel with Peter Moody
Hailing from the family of G1 Melbourne Cup winner Brew (Sir Tristram {Ire}) and AJC Derby winner Fiumicino, with G1 Japan Cup winner Horlicks as his fourth dam, the step up to 2000m in the Grandvue Springlands BM78 Hcp at Pakenham should provide no concerns.
"Obviously anything over 2000m, he's going to enjoy," he said.
Showcasing Shamus
Shamus Award is currently sixth on the second-season sires table when it comes to winners, with Mr Quickie leading his progeny for wins and earnings this season.
Dalziel said he would be happy bidding for Shamus Award's third crop in the upcoming sales season given his experience with them.
Widden stallion, Shamus Award
"We've bought two of them, the other one (Gennikay) is with Philip Stokes and she ran second at Morphettville on debut. Drew the outside gate, dropped out and rocketed home. Phillip has a good opinion of her," he said.
"We're very happy with them." - Wylie Dalziel
"We're very happy with them. I’ll be honest I wasn't that keen to get them this year but now they have come out and hit their straps a bit I wouldn’t be afraid to buy another one."
Mr Quickie as a yearling
Colours of compromise
My Quickie sports a hybrid of the Dalziel Racing colours and those of Rosemont Stud, who bred him, and retained an interest.
"We bought the horse off Rosemont Stud. We thought he was one of the nicer horses in their draft and when we purchased him, Mitho (Anthony Mithen) said I want ten per cent and Nigel Austin wants 10 per cent too. They really liked the yearling," he said.
Dalziel said the commercial necessity forced Rosemont to put Mr Quickie through the sales, but Austin was a big fan of him and wanted to feature the Rosemont lion, known as the Gatecrasher.
Ethan Brown featuring the combined colours aboard Mr Quickie
"When I was at Easter sales, Nigel came back to me and said 'have you got any more of the Shamus Award - Special Favour? So he took a little bit more," he said.
"He was telling the story of how he loves the horse. We then had a discussion about colours, so I said, rather than flip a coin or have a blue, we combine them and put their Gatecrasher on the front and my blue spots and that's how the colours came up," he said.
