Keeping the faith
Punters lost faith but not the connections of Electron (Turn Me Loose), winner of Saturday’s AGC Training Centre Stakes (Listed, 1600m) at Wanganui.
The mare took seven starts to win her maiden then quickly added two more wins. She has tried stakes level on 11 occasions during her 31-start career and last autumn managed a couple of Group 3 placings: game front-running and close thirds in Ellerslie’s Easter Handicap (1600m) and Trentham’s Cuddle Stakes (1600m). However, this season, apart from an open win last spring, she has found stakes class a bit of a challenge. This autumn her form has gradually improved, marked by a fighting fifth in the Rangitikei Gold Cup (Listed, 1600m), her lead-up to Saturday’s breakthrough stakes win.
Her racing pattern is to lead or sit handy to the lead and again she was a handy third turning for home, pushed between runners 200m out, co-led to form a line of three at the 100m then had a ding-dong battle with Khafre (American Pharoah) to get the nod in a head-bobber.
Electron never went through a live auction but was sourced as a three-year-old filly via an on-line auction in late 2023, fetching a meagre $1000, purchased by her trainer Sam Mynott and making her bank of a smidge under $200,000 look very healthy from six wins. “She does need the stars to align at this level, which they did today, and I knew she had a Listed win in her,” said Mynott. “She’s very special, my little $1000 purchase and she will go to the paddock now.”
The five-year-old mare represents the ninth individual stakes winner by former Windsor Park Stud stallion Turn Me Loose (Iffraaj), the latter having recently been exported to China. A wonderful racehorse who shone in two Australian Group 1s, Turn Me Loose averaged 113 mares during his first six seasons at stud but breeders lost interest after, the stallion attracting just eight mares last spring. It’s tough remaining competitive among stallions.
Electron is one of three winners from Chemistry (Shamardal), a winning daughter of Tick By (Zabeel), twice a winner at Flemington and whose two stakes placings included a third in the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m). Tick By’s dam Klokka (Marscay) was a notch below top class as the winner of six races, five of which were Group 2s and Group 3s. At stud, Klokka foaled ten winners from 11 foals while her dam, Small Timer (Lyphard) went one better, producing eleven winners including the outstanding Italian runner Sikeston (Lear Fan) who landed seven Group 1s.
Class is permanent
Iffraaj (Zafonic) featured again this past weekend when Western Empire continued his superb run of form in Perth, getting his head down right on the line to bag the Hyperion Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m), rider Willie Pike commenting post race that the gelding has a bit of class on his side.
The talk of Perth as a three and four-year-old, scoring seven wins in 13 starts including a huge win in the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), Western Empire had two campaigns on the East Coast of Australia but was unsuccessful at which time owner Bob Peters sold him to the gelding’s former trainers for $150,000. Grant and Alana Williams performed the same original magic and Western Empire has repaid his new owners to the tune of a further six wins and $2.1 million. His career grand total stands at more than $3.67 million.
Peters has established a large breeding empire which includes sending mares to New Zealand from time to time. His Perth Cup (Gr 2, 2400m) winner Western Jewel (Jeune) was one such mare and visited Iffraaj, then standing at Haunui Farm, on three occasions.
Peters was possibly influenced by the success of several northern hemisphere Iffraaj runners such as Wootton Bassett and Ribchester. However, he was ahead of the curve in the southern hemisphere as New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) and Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Gingernuts had yet to feature. Neither had Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Jon Snow. Their prominence took place after Peters sent Western Jewel across the Tasman although Turn Me Loose had shown his quality in Melbourne with two elite-level wins. Peters struck gold with the first match and Western Empire was the result.
The now eight-year-old is one of eight winners from Western Jewel, three of which are by Iffraaj. The mare also foaled the Listed winner Western Temple (Dream Ahead) and ranks as a half-sister to another Perth Listed winner Western Blaze (Hard Spun).
Continuing theme
The two subjects covered so far are a son as well as a granddaughter of top class sire Iffraaj, and by some coincidence, the third subject, Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Providence, similarly has a close connection with Iffraaj as he is by Iffraaj’s son Wootton Bassett.
In 12 trips to New Zealand Iffraaj sired seven Group 1 winners, equalling his output of the same number of elite winners in the Northern Hemisphere. In total, the old boy, who at 25 is still listed as being available in Great Britain, standing at Darley, has sired 105 individual stakes winners.
Wootton Bassett represented Iffraaj’s first NH crop and landed Longchamp’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Gr 1, 1400m) at two. At stud Wootton Bassett defied the odds after a tardy start at stud but rose to the top causing Coolmore to take notice and make a major purchase in 2020. His stud career with them was all too short and he died last year from acute pneumonia at the young age of 17.
Shuttling to Australia, Wootton Bassett’s oldest there are three-years-olds so he has two-year-olds, yearlings and weanlings waiting in the wings. Nevertheless, his loss must have been a difficult pill to swallow and the same loss was very likely the reason that Coolmore plundered the New Zealand stud scene and whisked Super Seth (Dundeel) off to replace him. With several Australian crops and the quality of mares he attracted, there is every chance that a son or two will emerge as sire prospects.
Wootton Bassett’s first crop includes Cambridge Stud’s Almanzor, winner of the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr 1, 2100m) and who is turning out winners galore, his 2025-26 season being his best yet. Almanzor is one of 86 Wootton Bassett stakes winners.
As for Providence, he remains a colt and the Queensland Derby was his second victory but he is something of a slow maturer, taking ten starts to break his maiden. There was promise at two and he finished fifth in November’s Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) while still a maiden. He arrived at Eagle Farm in good form having finished second at Group 3 level at Randwick in April followed by a solid third at Doomben in the Rough Habit Plate (Gr 3, 2000m), his lead up.
In the Derby James McDonald set him alight at the 600m and turning for home they were widest but one. Levelling up to co-lead at the 300m the colt dashed clear and while his lead was eaten into late there was no way he was going to lose. McDonald was certainly in no panic.
Providence is a graduate of the 2024 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and was secured for $625,000. The Derby prize took his earnings to $934,400. His dam was a winner who showed some class when finishing third in The Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Caulfield whereas his grandam, Rezoned (Zabeel), was successful at Group 3 level in the South Australian Fillies Classic (2500m), a race which replaced the South Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
Rezoned ranks as a sister to champion stayer Preferment, the four-time Group 1 winner whose premier wins were Randwick’s BMW Stakes (2400m) as well as Flemington’s Australian Cup (2000m), Victoria Derby (2500m) and Turnbull Stakes (2000m). This connection might explain why Providence is only now coming into his own.
Tough
Sandown’s Sunday meeting featured the Sandown Cup (Listed, 3200m) where patrons and punters were presented with a heavy track combined with distance. Uncovering the winner of such a combo demands looking for toughness which can often be found in many New Zealand-breds. Three Kiwis lined up against a brace of five European imports.
The tote opted for Kiwi-bred The Western Front (War Decree) who started as favourite but he had to delve deep into his stamina reserves to get the win, his seventh in a light career of 18 starts and first at stakes level.
A race of two halves, only the second half saw some tactics. Rounding into the straight The Western Front sat three-wide waiting to pounce. Sandown’s straight is testing and The Western Front made the lead well before the 300m. He was unable to break clear but all the way to the line he simply refused to buckle, looking vulnerable at the 100m then holding on bravely by a half head. It was a tough win.
Similar to Electron (above), The Western Front was found on line as a weanling by Cambridge trainer Ralph Manning who outlayed $1300 for the youngster. A trial winner late in his three-year-old season preceded his sale to an Australian syndicate.
At four the gelding broke his maiden at start three and won again at start four, both at Geelong. This season he was tried over ground, scoring at Cranbourne followed by a Benchmark 78 win at Caulfield over 2400 metres and a Benchmark 84 win at Flemington over 2500 metres on ANZAC Day. Clearly he stays well and Sunday’s win took his earnings beyond $360,000.
The fourth stakes winner by War Decree (War Front), he is one of two winners from Rosaeflora (Zacinto), herself one of six winners from six to race from Paris Hilton (Pins), the winner of six races including at Riccarton.
There is some serious staying blood in his family which was largely established by the Fells of Fairdale Stud. Paris Hilton’s grandam is the good mare Harp (Sobig) whose best win was in the Hawkes Bay Cup (Gr 3, 2200m) plus a close second in the Auckland Cup (Gr 1, 3200m). Harp’s grandaughter Miltak (McGinty) went one better and won the Auckland Cup plus the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and the BMW Stakes (Gr 1, 2400m) in Sydney. Harp’s dam, Chapel Belle (Pakistan II), defied her sire’s propensity for speed and won up to 11 furlongs while her half-brother, Tesla (Bulandshar) also won the Auckland Cup.