Oh What a Start to 2018!
The success of graduates of Coolmore Australia in recent years is showing no signs of stalling if the early months of 2018 are anything to go by.
In 2017, there were 26 stakes winning graduates of Coolmore’s Jerrys Plains nursery. That tally includes 5 Gr.1 winners and the winners of 44 stakes races around the world in 2017.
To date in 2018, there have been 5 individual stakes winners to have been ‘raised and grazed’ at Coolmore Australia, including a pair of Gr.1 winners, much to the delight of Coolmore Australia Stud Manager, Jim Carey; “It has been fantastic. We were overwhelmed by the success of the two-year-old crop last season with the likes of Catchy, Formality and Tulip amongst others, but there are a number of potential stars amongst this year’s crop already. The team on the farm takes great pride in the success of the graduates and luckily the good run of recent years is continuing.”
In South Africa, star three-year-old filly Oh Susanna, a daughter of Pride Of Dubai’s sire Street Cry, became the first filly of her age to win the prestigious Gr.1 Sun Met at Kenilworth in over 100 years for her owner/breeder, Mrs Gaynor Rupert of Drakenstein Stud.
Oh Susanna has won twice at the highest level, having taken out the Gr.1 Paddock Stakes three weeks prior to her Met success.
In between those wins, progressive colt Age Of Fire (Fastnet Rock) (pictured)avenged his Spring defeat in the Gr.1 New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas to win the Gr.1 Levin Classic at Trentham. Raced by the Te Akau Stud Syndicate of David Ellis, the Easter Yearling Sale graduate is another fine advertisement for the Fastnet Rock/Galileo cross that has produced 15 stakes winners from just 57 runners to date.
Complimenting that pair of Gr.1 winners is a trio of exciting stakes winning two-year-olds with designs on making a mark at the top level. Current Gr.1 Blue Diamond favourite Long Leaf (Fastnet Rock), unbeaten in three starts including a pair of stakes races, had an ominous threat posed to his chances in that race by Saturday’s impressive Gr.3 Chairman’s Stakes winner Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock). Interestingly both are bred on the same Fastnet Rock/Stravinsky cross that produced Mosheen.
On the same day that Long Leaf was cementing his position as Gr.1 Blue Diamond favourite, another exciting juvenile graduate of Coolmore Australia was extending an unbeaten run of her own. A winner of all four of her starts to date, most recently the Listed Karaka Million, the Willie and Karen Calder bred Avantage (Fastnet Rock) is arguably the best two-year-old in New Zealand.
*Stakes winning graduates of Coolmore Australia in 2017 include; Winx, Catchy, Inference, Mighty Boss, Pinot, Formality, Bring Me Roses, Theanswermyfriend, Tulip, Stampede, Long Leaf, Run Naan, Comin’ Through, Man From Uncle, Dawn Wall, Religify, Lucky Year, Milwaukee, Supreme Profit etc.