Cornerstone Stud fees
Cornerstone Stud shuttle stallion Sir Prancealot (Ire), a proven Group 1 producer in the Northern Hemisphere, will stand at an unchanged service fee in 2021.
Sir Prancealot will remain at $9900 inc GST with associate sire Valentia’s service fee set at $7700 inc GST and the nursery to focus its efforts on the pair with Ambidexter to relocate to Tasmania.
“While his first crop was his smallest, the most pleasing response to Sir Prancealot has been the trainers flocking back to buy them again in his second season. His yearlings have averaged $50,000 this year,” Sam Hayes said.
Valentia’s oldest runners are now 3-year-olds and while only having modest crop sizes, Hayes said the quality of his runners to date will see him cover a much larger book of mares in 2021.
“We are expecting Valentia to cover 80 to 90 mares this year at his fee of $7700."
Cox Plate prospect
Leading jockey Tommy Berry believes the Annabel Neasham-trained Mo’unga (NZ) (Savabeel) can develop into a G1 Cox Plate contender in the spring.
“That 2000 metres is his trip. He is still a big baby at the moment, still a bit raw around the edges,” Berry told RSN. “He seems to corner very well and he obviously has raced in Melbourne and performed very well there as well in the past.
“That would be his ideal race. He is a horse that’s going to keep improving.”
Mo’unga won the G1 Rosehill Guineas before he was unplaced against the older horses in the G1 Doncaster H. and the G1 Queen Elizabeth S.
Mo'unga (NZ)
Group 1 rides for Kah
Top Melbourne jockey Jamie Kah’s book of mounts at Randwick on Saturday will include two Group 1 rides.
Kah has deferred last Saturday’s 10-meeting careless riding suspension and her manager Lachlan Weekly told Racing.com she was set to take the booking for Cascadian (GB) (New Approach {Ire}) in the G1 All Aged S. and Queen Of Wizardry (Not A Single Doubt) in the G1 Champagne S.
Weekly confirmed Kah would then return to Melbourne to ride at the St Leger meeting at Flemington on Sunday on Anzac Day before beginning her suspension.
Jamie Kah
Well-bred youngster scores
Well-related filly Sky Castle (Capitalist) impressed in her first trial outing at Hawkesbury on Monday morning when successful in an 800 metre 2-year-old heat for trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou.
In front all the way under rider James Innes Jnr, Sky Castle is raced by breeder Bert Vieira and partners and is out a half-sister to his four-time Group 1 winner and sire Trapeze Artist.
Annabel Neasham produced both winners of the 1000 metres 2-year-old heats with Turboart (Flying Artie) and Charminton (NZ) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) with both ridden by Tommy Berry.
A half-brother to G3 Quezette S. winner Petit Filous (Street Boss {USA}), Turboart was bought out of Glenn Haven Thoroughbreds’ Inglis Ready2Race Sale draft by Neasham for $140,000. HBL Racing secured Charminton for NZ$65,000 out of Windsor Park Stud’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale consignment. He is from the family of G2 Counties Cup winner The Mighty Finn (NZ) (McGinty {NZ}).
Among the older horses, Godolphin’s dual Group 1 winner Trekking (Street Cry {Ire}) was a runaway winner of his 900 metre open heat in the hands of Rachel King.
Trainer bullish
Trainer John Thompson is confident Dreamforce (Fastnet Rock) will be hard to roll in Saturday’s G1 All Aged S. at Randwick.
“He is going super. He had a nice little freshen up at the Farm after his George Ryder run which is what we wanted going back to the 1400 metres,” Thompson told Racenet.
“I couldn’t be happier with him. He is racing at the top of his game, for an older horse he is well in himself. He is fit and well and I am looking forward to it.”
Dreamforce improved on his first-up fifth in the G1 Canterbury S. to finish a close second last time out behind Think it Over (So You Think {NZ}) in the G1 George Ryder S.
Dreamforce
Searching for stakes victory
Last-start winner Babylon Berlin (All Too Hard) will be looking for her first black-type victory at Te Rapa on Saturday-week when she contests the G3 Cambridge Breeders’ S.
She has been stakes-placed on three occasions this season, including the G3 Hawke’s Bay Breeders' Gold Trail S., G3 Almanzor Trophy and the Listed Mufhasa S.
She has failed to finish on the podium in just one of her nine starts, and trainer and part-owner Ben Foote is hoping her consistency will pay off with a stakes win next week.
“She is a very fast, little filly that is just learning to do that little bit more early in her races,” Foote said. “We are definitely looking for that ultimate win in a black-type race.”
Pleasing return
Co-trainer Roger James couldn’t have been happier with the return to racing of high-quality mare Two Illicit (NZ) (Jimmy Choux {NZ}) at Te Rapa and now the issue is to see if there are any autumn targets for her to chase.
One of the best 3-year-olds last season, Two Illicit won on her return to racing as a 4-year-old before finishing just behind the placings in both the G1 Windsor Park Plate and the G1 Livamol Classic.
James said he would be talking with Two Illicit’s owners, headed by Brent and Cherry Taylor of Trelawney Stud, this week to decide on potential targets.
One option is the G2 Travis S. for fillies and mares at Te Rapa on May 1, though James said it wasn’t ideal given that it came up just two weeks after resuming over 1400 metres last Saturday.
Other options are to target middle distance races in Queensland in May and June, or to save her for a Melbourne spring campaign.
Schofer in hot form
Hazel Schofer is riding the crest of a wave at the moment and she is hoping that will continue.
The Taranaki apprentice jockey scored her 50th win of the season, and second at stakes level, when piloting Big Mike (NZ) (Don Eduardo {NZ}) to victory in the Listed Hawke’s Bay Cup at Hastings.
“It was an exciting race to ride, I don’t go to the front very often, but it’s nice when it pays off,” Schofer said. “It’s always a bit easier when you are on a front-running horse that likes to be out in front and just keeps giving.”
Schofer’s first black-type victory came aboard Waisake (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) in the Listed NZ St Leger at Trentham last month.
Upset victory
Entering Sunday's G3 Prix la Grotte at ParisLongchamp a live outsider, Ecurie Waldeck's Cirona (GB) (Maxios {GB}) proved more than just that when edging a five-way thriller.
Runner-up in the G3 Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville in October and in the Listed Criterium du Languedoc at Toulouse the following month, the 18-one shot was soon in front under Maxime Guyon and looked set to be swamped but rallied to win by a head from Silvestri (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}).
“Maxime gave her a super ride, he didn't go too fast in front and he knew how to ride her,” trainer Christophe Ferland said. “She lasted courageously and is a very sweet filly who knows how to quicken as she showed in the Reservoir last year.”
Guineas hopes boosted
Michael Pescod's Chindit (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) arguably set the standard in Sunday's G3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham S. at Newbury, and while he had to work, he was able to prevail in a tight finale to the seven-furlong Guineas trial.
Successful in the G2 Champagne S. at Doncaster in September before finishing ninth in the G1 Dewhurst S. on a Soft surface at Newmarket in October, he won by a neck to set up a shot at the G1 2000 Guineas.
“He will go for the Guineas, but I just worry if the undulations at Newmarket will let him build up that momentum in the same way,” trainer Richard Hannon said. “The French and Irish Guineas would be more convenient tracks, but the English Guineas are the ones you want to win.”
Further Group 3 success
Last year's G3 Prix des Chenes winner Policy of Truth (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) has added Paris Longchamp's G3 Prix de Fontainebleau to his record.
The imposing bay, who races for Haras du Logis Saint Germain and trainer Pia Brandt, was on the rail with two behind earlyand finished too well after getting into the clear 400 metres out.
“He's a big horse to have to switch out like that and quicken as well as he did, so it was a very good sign,” Brandt said. “He had shown me great quality last season, but you never know from two to three.
“He had done plenty of work and was really fit for this, because we wanted to see something in order to come back for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains.”
Another Frankel Rising Star
Newbury's card-opening Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Maiden S. saw a new TDN Rising Star emerge as Rockcliffe Stud's homebred Snow Lantern (GB) (Frankel {GB}) cut a dash in the country's best-contested race of its type so far this season. Entered in the May 2 G1 1000 Guineas that her illustrious dam Sky Lantern (Ire) (Red Clubs {Ire}) captured in 2013, the grey was second-best in the betting for the mile contest at 3-1 behind Juddmonte's Derab (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), the John and Thady Gosden-trained half-brother to Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}).
I'm very tempted to go for the Guineas–there's only one and although the breeder had said they don't want to go into the deep end I'll discuss it with them next week. The mare won two group 1s on the Rowley Mile and she's a very clever filly who works things out for herself,” said trainer Richard Hannon.
