Emotional victory for Sun Stud

3 min read

Written by Paul Vettise

Flinders River’s victory at Caulfield was a bittersweet one for Sun Stud, who bred and races the youngster and stood his sire Fighting Sun until his premature death at the Victorian farm last month.

A colic attack claimed the life of the much-loved stallion, whose own racing career was brought to an abrupt halt after winning both of his 2-year-old starts for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, including the Listed Canonbury S.

“He was the first horse that our ownership group had good success with,” Sun Stud Sales and Nominations Manager Philip Marshall told TDN AusNZ at the time of Fighting Sun’s passing.

The late Fighting Sun

“He was named by Mr Cheng and raced with Gai and Adrian and showed unbelievable potential and was probably robbed of what was a likely G1 Golden Slipper S. victory by injury.

“From a stallion point of view, many can be difficult and aggressive, but he was the complete opposite. He was a gentle giant and just a lovely horse to deal with.”

Golden success

In Flinders River, Fighting Sun looks to have a potential black type contender following a tidy performance to land Saturday’s Brendan Dart VOBIS Gold Ingot.

The 2-year-old tracked the speed and once rider Craig Williams was able to drive him between runners in the closing 100 metres he proved a willing partner to beat stablemate Galactic Fury (Street Boss {USA}).

“It’s been a plan for a long time, this race. These VOBIS Gold races can often not have quite as much depth as normal and I think that was the case here,” co-trainer David Eustace said.

“He’s a pretty smart horse and he didn’t get out when he really wanted to and when the gap came he didn’t have a lot of time to pick up, but he did. Both horses have run really well.

“It’s great to get a winner for Sun Stud, who put a lot of money into the industry and bred this horse so it’s a fantastic result and hopefully plenty more to come, and take it to another level.”

Flinders River, who has now won two of his six starts, is the first runner out of The Copper Sun (Bradbury’s Luck), who was a juvenile winner.

She is a sister to In Cahoots, who was twice successful at Listed level, and they are out of the G2 Winterbottom S. and G3 Schillaci S. winner Petite Amour (Prego {Ire}).