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    • I heard it leads to severe bouts of delusion , especially in old accountants.
    • Sam Agars FAST NETWORK - R10 (1) Smart four-year-old looks poised to strike on his return to sprinting   Jay Rooney FAST NETWORK - R10 (1) Drops back to a more suitable trip after a good run in the Classic Mie   Trackwork Spy LASERBLANCA - R4 (7) Solid debut where he made ground and was good in defeat. Looks hard to beat   Phillip Woo MIDORI GIANT - R9 (14) Can strike over a suitable trip after flashing potential in three runs   Shannon (Vincent Wong) SUPER STRONG KID - R1 (10) Nice looking type who has been performing very well at the trials   Racing Post Online LUCKY TOUCH - R6 (1) Honest galloper never runs a bad race and looks ready to win   Tom Wood LASERBLANCA - R4 (7) Solid debut run, should strip fitter and will go close hereView the full article
    • The feeling of seeing sale-ring purchases go on to stardom on the racetrack is nothing new for Johnny McKeever, but the respected European bloodstock agent took special satisfaction from Feroce’s (NZ) (Super Seth) triumph in the Gr.1 Howden Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on Saturday. Feroce was bred by Sir Peter Vela’s Pencarrow Thoroughbreds Ltd and comes from the first crop of Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth. Offered by Eion Kemp’s Kilgravin Lodge at the 2023 Ready to Run Sale at Karaka, Feroce was bought for $160,000 by McKeever Bloodstock Ltd in partnership with rookie trainer Dominic Sutton. McKeever was at Flemington on Saturday as Feroce edged out fellow New Zealand-bred Savaglee (NZ) (Savabeel) in the Australian Guineas, improving his record to three wins, three placings and more than A$1.3 million in stakes from a nine-start career. “To be honest, it was the usual story,” McKeever said. “I came to New Zealand to see some Ready to Run Horses before heading back to Europe for the Goffs Foal Sale. I put together a list, and Dom bid on several horses. By some miracle, one of the ones on the list was Feroce and he got him. That’s racing for you, and that’s picking out horses at sales for you. “This is just incredibly special. Dom’s father is one of my best childhood friends. Dom is just starting his training career, and in the first year of his career, he’s trained a Group One winner with a New Zealand-bred horse. “Another special aspect of this story is that Feroce was bred by Sir Peter Vela. I’m very fond of Sir Peter. He’s been up to Newmarket a lot and we’ve got to know each other well. “So this is very special for me for a number of reasons. It’s also very special for Waikato Stud, with their young stallion Super Seth coming through with a lovely Group One winner like that. “It just gives me so much pleasure on so many levels. It’s just fantastic.” McKeever has also formed a successful partnership with Kemp in recent years, purchasing yearlings throughout Australasia with the goal of re-offering them as two-year-old at the Ready to Run Sale. “Eion has been very kind in letting me select some yearlings, mainly in Australia and some in New Zealand, to be made into Ready to Run horses,” McKeever said. “I’ve learned a lot from Eion about the Ready to Run Sale and the concept. I’m more of a traditional yearling buyer, so it’s new to me, but he’s been great to work with.” McKeever has decades of experience buying bloodstock around the world, and he speaks highly about the New Zealand-bred thoroughbred. “I’m extremely happy with the New Zealand product,” he said. “I think it’s a different level to anything we have anywhere else in the world.” View the full article
    • Previously a runner-up in two black-type races, Marble Arch (NZ) (Per Incanto) went one better on Saturday with a valuable victory in the A$300,000 Gr.2 TAB Blamey Stakes (1600m) at Flemington. The New Zealand-bred five-year-old had been narrowly beaten in two recent attempts in stakes company, going down by a half-length when second in the Listed Lord Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on Boxing Day and by neck when second in the Gr.3 JRA Plate (1600m) at Caulfield on February 8. But this time Marble Arch would not be denied. Jockey Michael Dee sat in a handy position just behind the leaders before presenting Marble Arch three wide early in the run home. Marble Arch showed a quality turn of foot and burst to the front with 200m remaining. Attrition (Churchill) and Zardozi (Kingman) produced strong finishes to eat into the margin late in the piece, but Marble Arch coasted to a comfortable two-length victory. “She really deserved that,” said Ben Hayes, who trains in partnership with his brothers Will and JD. “She’s been bridesmaid a couple of times in stakes races this prep. To win a Group Two is just huge for her residual value. “The ownership group are fantastic – Steve and Vicky Thompson, they’re great supporters of ours. To win a Group Two for them is just a huge result. She’s been a great success story. She was a Future Stars winner on a Thursday (in 2023) in her first Australian start. “She got such a good run today. It was a great ride by Michael. There was good speed there and we ended up in a perfect position with no weight.” Dee was similarly impressed. “She peeled out and we had that race shot to bits a long way from home,” he said. “She cruised into it, hit the front without doing any work and really quickened away. She’s in great form at the minute and hopefully that continues.” The winner of the Blamey Stakes earns a ballot-free entry for the A$2.5 million Gr.1 All Star Mile (1600m) at Flemington next Saturday, and the Lindsay Park team will seriously consider backing up with Marble Arch. “If she pulls up well, it won’t be a hard decision with a mare in such good form,” Hayes said. “She was quite impressive today, so we’ll definitely be considering it. “We’ve just got to see how she pulls up, but if she pulls up well, I think it’ll be an easy vote to run. “I think she has the right constitution to back up. I think that’s her tenth run for the prep and she’s just been super-consistent.” A daughter of Little Avondale Stud’s outstanding sire Per Incanto, Marble Arch was purchased privately by the Lindsay Park team after finishing third at Wanganui in her only start in New Zealand for trainer Wayne Marshment. Bred by Goodwood Stud, Marble Arch is out of the four-win Sakhee’s Secret mare Jonquil (NZ) and stems from the family of Group One winners Atishu (NZ) (Savabeel) and Daffodil (NZ) (No Excuse Needed). The now five-year-old mare was initially sold as a weanling for just $3,100 via gavelhouse.com. Saturday’s victory was Marble Arch’s ninth career win from 22 starts, with a further five placings, and she advanced her career earnings to A$790,646. View the full article
    • Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth and trainer Dominic Sutton stood in the Group One spotlight for the first time when Feroce headed a New Zealand-bred quinella in Saturday’s A$1 million Gr.1 Howden Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington. It was a case of second time lucky for Feroce, who finished second and was beaten by an agonising short head by Private Life in the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) in October. Rookie trainer Dominic Sutton soon set his sights on Australian Guineas redemption, giving the gelding only two runs in the five months in between those two 1600m classics. Feroce finished third in the Gr.3 Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) at Flemington in early November, then returned from a summer break with a third in the Gr.3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) on February 15. It all came together in the one that counted on Saturday. Jockey Billy Egan got Feroce into a perfect position in fifth place as Stay Focused led the field up to the home turn. Standout New Zealand colt Savaglee sprinted past that runner and took command with 400m to go, but Feroce was following through in his slipstream. Egan angled Feroce to Savaglee’s outside and drove him up alongside his fellow Kiwi-bred. The pair fought a desperate battle through the last 150m, with Feroce edging ahead of a gallant Savaglee to win by three-quarters of a length. There was another length back to Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Goldrush Guru in third. Feroce became an unforgettable first Group One winner for Sutton, who is in his first season of training. “I can’t even think of a word to say right now,” he said. “Crazy. I’ve got so many people to thank, especially my fiancée, Raquel. I couldn’t do it without her. Her dad’s flown over from the UK. Simon (Chappell), our biggest owner, our biggest supporter, is over as well. He literally flew in this morning. “And look, we can’t do it without the horse, and he’s just an absolute warrior. We thought we had him right for the day. Everyone sort of probably wrote him off a little bit off his first-up run, but Billy just came in and said he’s flying and just hated that soft ground. I can’t quite believe this, to be honest. “It took a long time to get over the Caulfield Guineas, I’m not going to lie. A lot of people were congratulating us, but I still felt pretty bitter about it all, thinking that we could have won on that day. And we all know how hard it is to win these races and to have a horse good enough and present him in the right order on the day. “So you sometimes think, ‘Am I going to be waiting for a long time now until the next one comes along?’ But this horse has just been super. He’s just improved, improved, improved. He was probably the third ever horse we’ve bought out of the sales, and I’ve got to thank Johnny McKeever. He’s been instrumental in helping us select these horses. He’s also selected horses like Garachico, Detroit City, our proper flagbearers. So I’ve got a lot to thank him for as well. “I was just hoping he’d really knuckle down and go past that leader. He’s had a tendency of just getting his head up a little bit, but once Billy changed the stick through, and gave him a couple more reminders, he really let down and flew.” Egan was delighted to play his part in Sutton’s first Group One triumph. “I’m just really happy for Dom,” he said. “For a young bloke, having so many horses in his first year of training and also having Group One runners in your first year of training, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, and he handles himself really well. He’s got his fiancée, Raq, and he’s got his parents as well, they’re all very supportive of him, so it’s just great that he can handle himself in such a way and do an amazing job with these horses in his first year. “He’s not a bad horse. It’s taken a while for the penny to drop. Dom’s done a lot right by the horse, and it’s showing when he’s getting results like this. So just a great job to have a horse spot-on and primed for a Group One event. It’s not easy to set a horse for a race, any target, anywhere, but to do it against the best trainers and horses and riders, you know, on the big stage is a real credit to him. “The race really worked out really nicely. We had the plan to press forward and be just behind those leaders, so we weren’t too far away. He can really hold a good gallop, and it just worked out a treat for him today.” Bred by Pencarrow Stud, Feroce was purchased out of Kilgravin Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft for $160,000 by Sutton and McKeever Bloodstock last year. Feroce is a son of the unraced O’Reilly mare Corinthia and is a half-brother to the Listed Karaka Classic winner Siracusa and a member of the famed Eight Carat family. Feroce has now had nine starts for three wins, three placings and A$1.33 million in stakes. Super Seth, meanwhile, was New Zealand’s leading first-season sire in 2023-24 and heads the second-season standings in 2024-25. He is the sire of 25 winners, with Feroce the best of his six individual stakes winners. His daughter La Dorada has won this season’s Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m), while Sethito, Linebacker, Poetic Champion and Super Photon have also won at black-type level. It was a quinella for the Waikato Stud stallion roster, with Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) hero Savaglee being a son of the great Savabeel. View the full article
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