She Will Reign Races To Golden Slipper Favouritism
The filly made her racecourse debut only a week earlier at the provincial Kembla Grange track when she jumped brilliantly and led throughout, drawing clear without effort to win by more than eight lengths, running the 1000 metres in 56.04, just a fraction outside the track record. Just as telling was her sizzling time of 32:00 for the last 600 metres.
Last Saturday’s track conditions at Randwick were very different as She Will Reign had to face a heavy track (rated Heavy 8) but it did not dim her brilliance. After a slightly slow start, She Will Reign soon zoomed to the lead before coming away in the final stages to score by four lengths in 58.57. Her final 600 metres was timed at 34.94, fastest by far on the day and not even approached by quality older sprinters in later races on an improving surface.
While there must be some doubt that She Will Reign will be as effective over 1200 metres, the way she finished off in both starts is encouraging even if her female pedigree reeks of short course speed.
Bred in NSW by Gary Bachell, She Will Reign is the first foal of her dam Courgette (Charge Forward) and sold for $20,000 when offered in Ambergate Farm’s draft at this year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale (Book One) in Sydney. Purchaser was syndicator Darby Racing, a group of whose clients previously owned her dam.
Darby Racing’s racing manager Mark Holland broke in Courgette for clients of the Gerald Ryan stable and when the original owners decided to sell he recommended Darby Racing buy her as he knew she possessed above average ability compromised by soundness issues. The new ownership group included Gary Bachell who later bought out his partners to breed with the mare who has a Shamus Award (Snitzel) yearling filly and a 2016 colt by the recently deceased Kitchwin Hills stallion Time For War (Snitzel).
Courgette came to hand as a two-year-old and retired as the winner of two races over 1000 metres and 1100 metres including one in Sydney.
She Will Reign is the eighth stakes winner for her superbly bred Arrowfield Stud sire Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago) and if she goes on in the autumn she could challenge top sprinting mare Wild Rain (Manhattan Rain) as the best of the sire’s progeny to date.
As a Group One-winning half-brother to three time champion sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) Manhattan Rain retired to stud in 2010 with high expectations.
He was among the top two-year-olds of the 2008/09 season, contesting all three legs of the Sydney Juvenile Triple Crown, finishing third to Phelan Ready in the Golden Slipper Stakes, winning the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) from Tickets (Redoute’s Choice) and Rostova (Testa Rossa) and then placing third in the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) behind Onemorenomore (Red Ransom) and Tickets. Manhattan Rain had earlier taken the Skyline Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) but while he failed to win in five starts as a three-year-old, a second to older champion So You Think (High Chaparral) in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) and a third in the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) to Starspangledbanner (Choisir) further franked his racing class.
Speed dominates the female half of She Will Reign’s pedigree as her maternal grandsire Charge Forward (Red Ransom) ranked as the best and fastest juvenile colt of his generation before going on at three years to defeat Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and his Golden Slipper conqueror Dance Hero (Danzero) in the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) before capturing the The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m).
Our Farm Girl (Marscay), the unraced second dam of She Will Reign, is a sister to the speedy two-year-old stakes winner Millie (Marscay) and a half-sister to another stakes winner, Touch Of Sun (Snippets) who defied his sprinting pedigree to record his most important success in the Winter Cup (Listed, 2400m).
She Will Reign’s third dam Sunshine Sally (Cheraw) also matured early to show speed as a juvenile, winning the Reisling Slipper Trial Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) but as an autumn three-year-old she was able to extend that speed in top grade by placing second to Domino (Grosvenor) in the 1990 AJC Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m), defeating into third place Kensington Gardens (Grosvenor), subsequently an exceptional producer of five stakes winners headed by leading Western Australian sire Blackfriars (Danehill).
She Will Reign’s pedigree features a 4m x 4f double of speedster Bletchingly (Biscay), three times champion sire in Australia, with Biscay (Star Kingdom) appearing for a third time as the father of Golden Slipper Stakes winner and champion sire Marscay.
Further back in She Will Reign’s pedigree are duplications of Northern Dancer’s sire Nearctic (Nearco), Hail To Reason (Turn-To) and Nashua (Nasrullah).