Calamari Ring (AUS)
2 f Street Boss – Excelsior Island by Exceed And Excel
O: Mr Leo To
B: Two Bays Farm
T: Ciaron Maher
S: Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale V: Two Bays Farm P: Hall Of Fame / Shane McGrath Bloodstock, $140,000
W: Inglis Banner, RL, 1000m, Flemington, November 8
Two-year-old filly Calamari Ring (Street Boss) made the perfect start to her career on the final day of the Flemington spring carnival when scoring an impressive debut win in the Inglis Banner (RL, 1000m).
Ridden by Ethan Brown, the Ciaron Maher-trained filly showed great maturity to head up the centre of the Flemington straight in driving rain and lead in ten male and female rivals by 0.2 lengths on debut in the Banner as she defeated Streisand (Magnus).
The victory comfortably eclipsed her purchase price in one hit with the $240,000 first prize.
Maher was delighted with the filly’s debut performance, tipping she had “a bright future”.
“God I thought she’s done a great job,” the winning trainer told Racing.com. “She came up the middle of the track, had never seen the straight.
“She’s always shown ability. I didn’t think she’d get to the races this early, but as good horses do, they do well in training, and every time we’ve asked a little bit of her it brought her on.”
Calamari Ring lined up off the back of two jump-outs, the latest a victory at Cranbourne on October 20 as the only two-year-old in the field against ten older males and females.
“Ciaron thought enough of her to trial against three-year-olds and she held her own in what looked wet enough ground,” Brown told Racing.com.
“I was always confident she was going to handle it today. She’s just prepared so well. She was very professional and made my job easy, for a young horse. She’s nice and fit for a heavy track first up, and you can’t kick your career off in much better fashion than that.
“I did have a look at the track and I thought anywhere up the middle was fine. Once she let down, she let down nice.”
Bred and sold by Victoria’s Two Bays Farm, Calamari Ring was purchased by Hall Of Fame and Shane McGrath Bloodstock for $140,000 at the 2024 Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale.
She is the fourth foal – all fillies – out of Excelsior Island (Exceed And Excel), a two-time winner in New Zealand and half-sister to that country’s Champion 2YO of 2011-12, Warhorse (General Nediym). Excelsior Island now has a fifth filly foal, by Rubick (Encosta De Lago), and was covered last season by Dirty Work (Written Tycoon).