Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i Turf Monthly

Sister Olive is one of only two Melbourne Cup winning mares to have produced two stakes winners. In the case of Sister Olive, she produced a daughter called Mount Of Olives by Lucknow who won the 1928 South Australian Derby and a son called Manolive by Manfred who won four stakes races in the 1937 Perth Cup, the 1938 Williamstown Cup and Eclipse Stakes and 1939 CF Orr Stakes. Manolive started at 100/1 and finished 11th in the 1938 Melbourne Cup and had finished 12th behind Buzalong in the Caulfield Cup. He cemented a unique place in history by winning the Final Handicap, the last race of the Flemington carnival on the Saturday following the Cup. Manolive covered the mile and a quarter journey in 2.02 beating the track record…

Coolmore Stud NSW Fee $22,000 Magna Grecia is a son of Invincible Spirit and is one of five of his sons at stud this season. His best son, I Am Invincible has a further nine sons at stud making this one of the most numerous lines we currently see. The colt is out of the G3 winning Galileo mare, Cabaret who in turn is out of the stakes placed Lear Fan mare, Witch Of Fife who has also produced G3 winner Drumfire by Danehill Dancer and Ho Choi by Pivotal who won the Listed Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup in Hong Kong having been G2 placed in England. The colt had his first start on 30-9-18 winning a 2yo maiden over 7f comfortably. He then stepped up to a mile and…

Coolmore Australia NSW Fee $17,600 Calyx is another new addition to a remarkable stallion line-up at Coolmore Australia. The stallion had only four starts winning three of these. He won his debut in July of his 2yo season by five lengths and then won the G2 Coventry Stakes at his last start that season. After almost a year off, he returned as a 3yo to win the G3 Pavilion Stakes at Ascot and then ran second as the 2/13 favourite in the G2 Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock before retiring. No doubt his early retirement considered the boom on his own sire Kingman and he becomes the first son of that stallion to stand in Australia. Kingman was the Horse of the Year and Champion 3YO Colt in Europe in…

From time to time there will be an argument over which generation of horses was the best. We have seen great crops of 2yo’s, 3yo’s and plenty of great rivalries that lasted over a period. Although there is a chance that I am biased, no matter what period you talk about, you may be hard pressed to find a more talented and exciting crop of 3yo’s than we saw in Sydney in the Autumn of 1996. To start by setting the scene, we need to go back to the 2yo season. It looked a great crop of 2yo’s. The Victorian trained Flying Spur by Danehill came out on top winning the Golden Slipper having been place in the Blue Diamond and VRC Sires’ at his previous two starts. He narrowly…

On 2 November 1920, the great Sydney horse Poitrel proved that he was the equal to any horse in Australia by winning the Melbourne Cup. It was his third and last start in Melbourne where he was only beaten once by the great Eurythmic. But this was close to the end of the mighty Poitrel’s career, so we are getting ahead of ourselves. Poitrel was by St Alwyne by Poinard. He was a quality stallion siring some 22 stakes winners over a long career although none better than Poitrel. Among his stakes winners were 1918 Melbourne Cup winner, Night March, Sydney Cup winner, Moorilla, Caulfield Cup winner, Lady Medallist and Hotham Handicap and dual Moonee Valley Cup winner, Gladwyn. St Alwyne was also notable as the damsire of the great…

Spendthrift VIC Fee $22,000 Omaha Beach is a newcomer at Spendthrift Farm this season. He was a multiple G1 winner with successes in the Malibu Stakes over 7f, Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes over 6f and Arkansas Derby over 9f. He also won the G2 Rebel Stakes by 8.5 lengths. and was second in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. All of these wins came during the colt’s 3yo season and he retired with over US$1.6 million after winning 5 from 10 and never being out of the placings. He is a son of War Front, in turn a son of Danzig. This seems to be the major attraction of the stallion, as War Front is among the most expensive stallions in the US. Two sons of War Front have stood…

Newgate Farm NSW Fee $16,500 In many ways Cosmic Force is exactly what the Australian breeder is looking for. He was an early 2yo starting his career in October winning a Newcastle maiden. A spell saw him return to run second in the Lonhro and then Skyline before winning the Pago Pago by 7 lengths. He ran 8th in last year’s Golden Slipper and was sent to the paddock. In his 3yo Spring he won the time-honoured Roman Consul and was placed in the Listed Fireball in the Autumn although he struggled a couple of times against the older horses in the big G1 Sprints. He retired with three wins from 11 starts and almost half a million dollars in stakes. It was impossible to leave Cosmic Force out of…

One reason that the Melbourne Cup has lost some of its relevance to the Australian thoroughbred is that the race has reduced influence in the sales ring. Having a Melbourne Cup victory on your resume does not assure stud success like it did in days gone by. This was not always the case, and Cup winners were often among our most highly sought-after families, and these lines had a huge impact on the Australian breed. There are two different categories here. Firstly, we have the stallions and while we have seen a growing number of entires winning the Cup in the last 20 years or so, their impact at stud have been mixed. We have seen one of our leading stallions in So You Think placed in the Cup, but…

It is relatively easy to still find Comedy King in modern pedigrees, though of course his influence is fading back in time. We have spoken of some of his sons and rather oddly he only ever produced two stakes winning daughters. Ormolu, out of an All Black mare, won the 1931 Williamstown Easter Cup but Stagegirl, out of a Stepniak mare, was by far his best. She won the Adelaide Guineas and beat the colts in the South Australian Derby but is best remembered for her win in the 1918 VRC Oaks Stakes. At stud she produced the Toorak winner, The Gay Mutineer by Lucknow. Seven sons of Comedy King went to stud, but none matched the success of their wonderful sire. There is always of course the question as…

BRUTAL Newgate Farm NSW Fee $27,500 Brutal is an intriguing prospect going to stud this season at Newgate Farm in NSW. The New Zealand bred stallion offers quite a different pedigree to most of the new stallions, and in fact most stallions standing in Australia. He is by the excellent NZ stallion O’Reilly who has sired almost 100 stakes winners internationally including horses like Sacred Falls, Silent Achiever, Alamosa and Shamexpress. He is out of the stakes placed Alberton Princess by Golan, a son of Spectrum by Rainbow Quest. It is largely a traditional NZ family tracing back to one of the original founding mares in Juliet by Touchstone who arrived from Britain in the 1850’s. Interestingly his line of the family includes such diverse types as John’s Hope by…

Spendthrift Farm Vic Fee $13,750 Vino Rosso is another of the US offerings at Spendthrift Farm in Victoria. He was another million-dollar earner retiring with 6 wins from 15 start and a little over US$4.8 million in prizemoney. He won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and Santa Anita Gold Cup both as a 4yo and was crowned Champion Older Dirt Male in USA in 2019. He was unbeaten in his two runs as a 2yo and won the G2 Aqueduct Wood Memorial Stakes and ran fourth in the Belmont as a 3yo. His dam Mythical Bride was a winner over a mile and by champion stallion, Street Cry. Her dam was the stakes winning Flaming Heart by Touch Gold who produced stakes winners Commissioner by AP Indy and Laugh Track…