Exceed and Excel’s Mr Stunning captures Hong Kong Sprint
Victorian-bred Mr Stunning (Exceed And Excel), the highest rated horse in Hong Kong, justified his favouritism by taking the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) by a neck under Australian rider Nash Rawiller after being prepared to perfection by nine-time champion Hong Kong trainer John Size, a Queenslander who also sent out the fast-finishing runner-up, New Zealand-bred DB Pin (Darci Brahma). Third placed Blizzard (Starcraft) is also Australian-bred. Race time was a smart 1:08.40.
Another Australian champion trainer in Hong Kong, John Moore, was also in the winner’s circle last Sunday after New Zealand-bred Beauty Generation (Road To Rock), known in Australia as Montaigne, won the Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m), while Australian jockey Zac Purton piloted British-bred Time Warp (Archipenko) to an impressive victory in the Hong Kong Cup (Gr 1, 2000m). Australian bloodlines also figure prominently in the brave, Irish-bred Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Highland Reel (Galileo), whose stakes-placed dam Hveger (Danehill) is out of the outstanding producer and performer Circles Of Gold (Marscay).
Bred in Victoria by Tony Santic’s Makybe Racing and Breeding, Mr Stunning was originally sold for $110,000 as a weanling to New Zealand pinhookers Mark and Shelley Treweek of Lyndhurst Farm at the 2013 Inglis Great Southern Sale in Melbourne. The colt proved to be a profitable buy when resold for NZ$250,000 to Magnus Equine of Hong Kong at the 2014 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale.
Mr Stunning is the 11th Group One winner for his perhaps slightly under appreciated sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill), whose progeny have won more than 250 black type races throughout the world.
Exceed And Excel, a past champion sire in Hong Kong, was champion sire in Australia in 2012/13 when he was also champion sire of two-year-olds, a title he won for a second time in 2014/15.
Darley has shuttled the former champion Australian sprinter between its Hunter Valley farm at Aberdeen and their bases in Britain and Ireland since 2005 and his achievements in the Northern Hemisphere are exceptional as his worldwide tally of stakes winners has reached 141.
Group One winners by Exceed And Excel in Australia are the successful young sires Helmet and Reward For Effort, champion fillies Guelph, Overreach and Earthquake plus top sprinter Flamberge. Besides Mr Stunning, Exceed And Excel has supplied Group/Grade One winners in Britain (Excelebration and Margot Did), France (Excelebration, now a successful sire), the United States (Outstrip) and Dubai (Amber Sky).
Among Exceed And Excel’s sons standing at stud in Australia in 2017 are Furnaces, Headwater, Helmet, Instinction, Jabali, Kuroshio, Outreach, Reward For Effort and Sidestep, so his influence continues to extend in his home country.
Tony Santic imported Mr Stunning’s dam, US-bred With Fervour (Dayjur), to Australia in 2005 when in foal to Oasis Dream (Green Desert).
Placed twice in Paris, With Fervour (1997) had produced two foals before her arrival in Australia which went on to win in Holland and Japan and she started well here as her 2005 gelding Contrive (Oasis Dream) won three races but her next two foals, Honeymoon Cruise (Fastnet Rock) and Go The Cats (Purrealist), were unplaced. She then produced dual winner Commissar (Wanted) before the arrival of Mr Stunning.
After missing to her 2012 service by Purrealist, With Fervour was consigned to the 2013 Inglis Australian Easter Broodmare Sale, where she was bought for just $6,000 by another Victorian breeder, Dr. L.J. Oldcastle, for whom she bred the unraced filly With Faith (Mossman) before her death in October 2014.
With Fervour is a sister to French stakes winner With Fascination (Dayjur), dam of stakes winner With Interest (Selkirk) and more significantly a half-sister to With Anticipation (Relaunch), a five-time Grade One winner in the United States, while their dam Fran’s Valentine (Saros) won three Grade One tests in the United States, earning US$1,370,000.
Like a number of other recent important winners, Mr Stunning is closely (3 x 3) linebred to Danzig (Northern Dancer). His maternal grandsire Dayjur (Danzig) raced in Europe where, as a three year-old, he was champion sprinter of 1990. While somewhat disappointing as a sire of winners when based in Kentucky, Dayjur has made a far greater impact as the broodmare sire of some 56 stakes winners, eight at Group One level.