PANDEMONIUM erupted in the saddling paddock as 20 owners and connections, which included breeder Garry Bachell, cheered home their filly, She Will Reign, to win the $3.5 million Longines Golden Slipper Stakes-G1 at a wet Rosehill Gardens last Saturday.
Many were first time owners including several trades people from south western Sydney and the Camden region, who were all experiencing a high few in the racing industry ever reach in taking the world’s richest race for two-year-olds.
Despite a heavy track and gloomy conditions the cheering crowd also acknowledged She Will Reign’s popular Warwick Farm conditioner Garry Portelli, who began his training career at his home town of Orange.
Having tried previously, Portelli had a goal to win a Golden Slipper this year having two runners, his other Not A Single Doubt colt Single Bullet finishing 13th.
She Will Reign, a daughter of Encosta de Lago stallion Manhattan Rain who has been transferred from Arrowfield Stud Scone, to Blue Gum Farm, Victoria, has again proved that an owner does not have to spend huge amounts of money to gain a good racehorse.
Inglis’ renowned Classic Yearling Sale can claim both She Will Reign, as well as runner-up Frolic, by Husson, as its graduates, with the winner purchased for just $20,000 by Sydney syndication company’s Darby Thoroughbreds, with Scott Darby and Mark Holland leading the team of owners.
Other excited connections include Jilly Henderson who raised She Will Reign as a foal with her Charge Forward dam Courgette, at her Scone property Middlebrook Station, as well as Kevin Drew of Ambergate Farm, Scone.
Winning four and placing second once from five starts, She Will Reign put two lengths between the Kelly family of Suffolk Vale, Boorowa-owned Frolic, with another three lengths to Tulip, a first-crop filly by Pierro, third.
Kembla Grange trainer Gwenda Markwell secured a spot in the Provincial Championship final at Randwick on April 8, when Lope de Vega mare Pomelo won Rosehill’s last race the Provincial Championships qualifier.
Meanwhile, at the feature meet at Albury last Sunday, Lautaro, trained by Andrew Dale, earned a spot in the Country Championship Final at Randwick.
Rain halts Hannam Vale Cup at Taree
THE state’s big wet last week may have postponed or halted some race meetings but the parties continued.
Several busloads of revellers braved the conditions to bolster the crowd for the annual Krambach Race Club’s Hannam Vale Cup meet at Taree, before heavy weather caused Drew Smith, chairman of stipendiary stewards for the Mid North Coast Racing Association, to halt the races after race two.
Ploughing through the heavy going to win was the Port Macquarie-trained Speed With Ease, by Don Eduardo sire son Swift Alliance, and Zaha gelding Sprite Zah, trained locally by Matt Robinson.
“It’s only been called-off twice before – in 2007 due to Equine Influenza and 2009 also to wet weather,” Krambach Race Club president Les Cross said.
The Hannam Vale Cup meeting, established in the late 1970s, is among three annual cup races conducted by the Krambach Race Club, its next is the Gloucester Cup program at Taree on Tuesday, April 18.