Port Cup goes to Loving Home

Trained by leading Australian conditioner Chris Waller, Loving Home is another successful European imported galloper for the Rosehill trainer.  A Great Britain-bred seven-year-old gelding by former Darley shuttle horse Shamardal, Loving Home defeated New Zealand bred Social Element (by Savabeel), with the Brett Cavanough, Scone, trained Brazen (Hinchinbrook) third.

Hawkesbury based hoop Tye Angland had the Cup winning ride, who made it a successful treble also winning aboard the Tim Martin trained Yesteryear (Gonski), and Oxford Poet, who won the $50,000 De Bortoli Wines Sprint Quality Handicap for Wyong trainer Kim Waugh.

Former Gold Coast trainer David Kelly who has relocated to Grafton in recent months, prepared Desert Rush to win the 1200 metres Maiden Plate. Ridden by Grafton based Matthew Paget, Desert Rush belongs to the first crop three-year-olds by Rock Of Gibraltar horse Golden Archer.

Standing at the Nolan’s Raheen Stud, at Gladfield, in south-east Queensland, Golden Archer was among the top sires by winners on the Australian first season sire list last season. Muswellbrook raiders also made their mark at the meet with trainers Todd Howlett and Luke Thomas winning with Heidsieck (Charge Forward) and Princess Lottie (Shrapnel) respectively.

WHILE All Too Hard was quick off the blocks siring 14-plus winners this season, his arch rival Pierro was quick to respond with a second crop two-year-old stakes winner when bay filly Satin Slipper won the first NSW two-year-old event for fillies the $150,000 Listed ATC Gimcrack Stakes at Randwick on Epsom Handicap day.

A home-bred horse for Belinda Bateman, who along with her well-known late husband Dr Edmund Bateman have raced numerous talented gallopers, Satin Slipper was foaled and raised at Newgate Farm, Aberdeen. Ridden by Hugh Bowman, Satin Slipper is the first foal of Flying Spur Group 2 winner Satin Shoes, who was also partnered by the same hoop when winning the STC Silver Slipper Stakes-G2 in 2011.

Interestingly, Satin Slipper’s sire Pierro began his championship racing career when winning the Breeders Plate Sydney’s first juvenile race for colts and geldings – this year’s edition taken impressively by chestnut colt Performer. A $450,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate, Performer is by Godolphin’s champion sire Exceed And Excel.

In Melbourne, it did not take long for Arrowfield’s champion sire Snitzel to come up with his first juvenile stakes winner of the season when his daughter Nomothaj won the VRC Maribyrnong Trial Stakes-LR at Flemington last Saturday.

In Western Australia, Widden Stud’s Star Witness claimed an early two-year-old winner when chestnut filly Kiss The Breeze won at Belmont Park, while Queensland’s first juvenile event at Toowoomba was impressively won by Hopes Eternal, a gelding by Flying Spur sire Jet Spur.

BON Hoffa who stands at Helen and John North’s Bowness Stud, Young, has been “rubbing shoulders” with some leading Australian sire names in recent weeks, when the liver chestnut stallion was represented with five winners in a week.

Another highlight for Bon Hoffa was his smart winner – the Danny Williams, Goulburn trained Don’t Give a Damn, as well as the second placegetter, Delivered (trained by Chris Heywood at Wagga Wagga), in a TAB Highway Handicap at Rosehill. On the same day in Melbourne Bons Away “knocked off” the favourite, the Japanese bred Brave Smash, who is among the favourites for the $10 million The Everest at Randwick this Saturday, in the MRC Testa Rossa Stakes-LR.  

Racing in fine form, Bons Away backed his black type status again when finishing a half-length fourth in the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes at Flemington last Saturday. A new stakes winner for Bon Hoffa, the Caulfield prepared four-year-old galloper has won five races and had two placings from 10 starts.

MEANWHILE Bon Hoffa’s spring stable companion, the Great Britain-bred shuttle sire Bullet Train, has come up with an early two-year-old winner when You Know The One won Queensland’s first metropolitan race for juveniles at the Gold Coast last Saturday. Bullet Train is a stakes winning three-quarter-brother to former great Frankel, who is now a leading sire in Europe.

Second to You Know The One was Brinkmanship, who is among the first crop of two-year-olds by $2.4 million earner Spirit Of Boom, stands at the McAlpine family’s Eureka Stud, Cambooya in south-east Queensland.

For good measure Spirit Of Boom also provided the second placegetter of the two-year-old fillies division, the second race on the Gold Coast card, when Lady McCabe finished a head second to Foxwedge filly Pony Power.