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I dont know any Marsh. I know who S Marsh is, but I've never met the guy. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Another chapter in the career of one of Sir Brendan and Lady Jo Lindsay’s most treasured broodmares was written at Ellerslie on Saturday when Liguria won the Gr.3 Colin Jillings 2YO Classic (1200m). The Lance Noble-trained filly is a grand-daughter of Zonza, who was bred by the Lindsays nearly 20 years ago and has since established her own dynasty. In 2007 they sent their Gold Brose mare Sonet to champion Cambridge Stud stallion Zabeel, producing the filly who was to become Zonza. Trained by Roger James, she carried the Lindsay colours to five wins headed by the Gr.3 Ladies Day Vase (1600m) at the 2013 Caulfield Cup meeting. Zonza has surpassed those racetrack achievements by producing three stakes winners – Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m) winner Pinarello, Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) winner Vernazza and Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) winner Bavella. Vernazza, who followed her Matamata Breeders’ Stakes win with second place to Karaka Million winner Cool Aza Beel in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m), is now the dam of Saturday’s Colin Jillings 2YO Classic winner Liguria, the result of her maiden mating with champion Australian sire Snitzel. After finishing fourth on debut at Ellerslie on Boxing Day, the member of Noble’s Karaka-based racing string stepped up to stakes company. That win capped a memorable week for the Lindsays after their Cambridge Stud draft had topped vendor standings at the 100th National Yearling Sale. “Zonza and J’Adane were the two standouts in Brendan and Jo’s early foray into bloodstock, so both mares will always hold a special place,” Cambridge Sud spokesman Scott Calder said. “Unfortunately we lost Vernazza after she had produced just two fillies, but the stud has retained Liguria as well as her yearling by Proisir. “Zonza is 17 and still breeding, and has a lovely Chaldean filly at foot, while we also have Bavella and Zonza’s unraced Tavistock daughter Zazon in the broodmare band.” Noble, the Lindsays’ private trainer, claimed a notable result early in his tenure when he returned to his former home track to win the 2020 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes with Vernazza and he hopes to follow the same path with Liguria on Saturday week. “It’s a credit to Lance and the whole team on the Karaka farm to win another feature race,” Calder said. “She ran well in her first start on Boxing Day and showed huge improvement the way she hit the line on Saturday. “The Matamata Breeders’ Stakes is a race that Lance has a genuine attachment to given he trained on the track and was also on the club committee. It’s great to think that he now has the chance to write another chapter in what is already a wonderful story.” View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Bill Thurlow endured his share of trials and tribulations with Whangaehu before the stayer’s latest show of form at Ellerslie. The Waverley trainer, who operates in partnership with Sam O’Malley, was delighted with the son of Proisir’s effort on Saturday to finish third over 2200m. Whangaehu came from the back of the field with a stout run under 61kg, conceding seven kilos to the Stephen Marsh pair of Sinhaman and Kiwi Skyhawk. “Hopefully, we’ve got him back where he should be and it hasn’t been easy, so we were very happy with him,” Thurlow said. That performance elevated the seven-year-old to an $8 second favourite for next month’s Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m). “It’s working out well and we’ll be trying to get him to the Cup. He’ll go to the Avondale Cup (Gr.3, 2400m) next, so he’s going to have to go to Ellerslie three times,” Thurlow said. “It’s a lot of travelling from where we’re based, but there’s no good lead-up races down here. It’s just the way the calendar is.” It will be Whangaehu’s second crack at the Cup after he finished seventh in the 2024 edition. “He went quite a good race, but he was a bit sharper and keener then and he’s got more dour since,” Thurlow said. Whangaehu was second-up in his preparation on Saturday after two unplaced efforts during the spring. “We thought we had him not far away, but he wasn’t quite clicking and not clearing the gates very well,” Thurlow said. “When we looked back at his races, they were over a mile and he’s never been a horse that’s been able to jump and sprint away from the gates. “He needs time to get into his rhythm and when you get up in grade in those mile races on good tracks they do jump and run but then put the brakes on and a horse like him gets flat-footed and makes it quite difficult.” Whangaehu’s return to form was encouraging on a bittersweet day for the stable after Field Of Gold was pulled up in the Douro Cup (1600m) at Trentham and subsequently humanely euthanised. “It was very said, he was just an absolute gem of a horse,” Thurlow said. “He was another one we thought we had got right. He was really working so well and then that happened, it was a great shame for everyone.” Field Of Gold was successful on four occasions, including victory in the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (2000m) and placed in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m), Gr.2 Auckland Guineas (1600m) and Gr.3 War Decree Stakes (1600m) when trained by Tony Pike. He subsequently joined Thurlow as an older horse to add to his winning record and more recently finished in behind the major players in the Gr.2 Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m) and Gr.3 Phar Lap Trophy (1600m). View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Luigi Muollo has been involved with the family of his foundation mare Explosive for more than two decades, and it continues to produce for the Novara Park principal. On Saturday, Special Sakura, a fourth generation of a branch of that family, secured black-type when taking care of a handy field to win the Listed Fulton Family Stakes (1500m) at Ellerslie. Bred and raced by Muollo, Special Sakura’s victory was a great result for his Waikato farm, with the four-year-old mare becoming the third individual stakes winner for Novara Park resident stallion Staphanos, joining Group One winner Pignan and Basilinna. Entrusted to the care of New Plymouth trainer Janelle Millar, Muollo said Special Sakura has shown plenty of ability in her prior nine starts and he wasn’t surprised by her 1-3/4 length victory on the weekend. “She has always shown a huge amount of ability and has been well placed by Janelle,” Muollo said. “She finished second to Hinekaha a few starts back and look at what she has gone on to do (win the Gr.2 Cal Isuzu Stakes, 1600m, and finish runner-up in the Gr.3 Aotearoa Classic, 1600m). The form has stood up around her and we knew she had run times very fast before. “She probably could have gone for stakes races a bit earlier, but we have shown a bit of patience to get her right and now she has got it all ahead of her.” Special Sakura’s victory has not only increased her value as a broodmare prospect, but also her immediate family, with Muollo still breeding from her dam, Mia Mamma, and he owns several of her siblings. “It is valuable for me owning Special Sakura, her mum, Mia Mamma, another half-sister called Speedy Swey and another two-year-old in Janelle’s stable who I have leased to Janelle that is a full-sister to Special Sakura,” Muollo said. Special Sakura is also a half-sister to Special Swey, who went on to win the Gr.3 Rough Habit Plate (2000m) for trainer Chris Waller. “Special Swey was a very smart horse and I sold him to my brother after he won a race here by four lengths,” Muollo said. “He ended up winning the Rough Habit Plate impressively. “There are not many mares around who have had three foals to race for two black-type winners. “Mia Mamma is in-foal to Sweynesse to get a full-sibling to Special Swey.” Special Sakura’s victory comes quickly off the back of New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales, and while Muollo only offered a couple of yearlings himself, preferring to retain some to race, it was a pleasing one for Staphanos, with his colt out of Group One winner Quintessential selling to Australian trainer Mick Price for $140,000 in the Book 1 session. “It was a very good result,” Muollo said. “I have kept a number of fillies myself and not enter them in the sale because the fillies have got a very good strike-rate, especially on Group One winners and performers to runners. He (Staphanos) is tracking well.” View the full article -
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