Winx Stakes set to provide big clue to second season sires’ table question

A gelding and a colt with strong links to outstanding New Zealand racemares will contest an intriguing edition of the race named after Australia’s finest one in Saturday’s Winx Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) at the Sunshine Coast.

And at stake could be the first place honours on the Australian second season sires’ table.

Darley’s Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) and the late Coolmore stallion Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) will be represented by the Tom Charlton-trained Cellarmaster and Team Munce’s colt Lyneham in this staging of the $300,000 feature, which in 2015 launched Winx’s 33-race winning streak.

In the closest battle in a sires’ category in the country – indeed, the only one still undecided – Wootton Bassett leads Bivouac by just $2,039, a remarkably close contest given each one’s progeny have earned more than $5.78 million.

After an engrossing four-way tussle for several weeks, the pair have cleared away from Vinery’s Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath (Dubawi).

And with only a handful of lucrative races left for the season, the first prize of $174,000 would go a long way to sealing Bivouac his first siring laurel, or securing Wootton Bassett the posthumous honour.

Both three-year-olds boast some powerhouse bloodlines.

Cellarmaster – who’s already earned black type through a third in Rosehill’s Phar Lap Stakes (Gr 2, 1500m) in March – is the first foal of Moet Belle (Tavistock). The mare was unplaced in her only two starts, but is a half-sister to the great Melody Belle (Commands), the 14-time elite winner, New Zealand’s two-time Horse of the Year, and its Champion 2YO of 2016-17, among other honours.

Lyneham is the fourth foal of Fanatic (Shocking), who won the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) of 2016 before claiming two Australian staying races including an Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m).

Cellarmaster is more strongly fancied in the betting – at around $9 before the barrier draw compared to Lyneham’s $51 – but co-trainer Corey Munce believes his charge can “run a cheeky race” after earning a rise in class with his last start 0.14-length win in a 1708-metre Benchmark 65 at the Gold Coast.

Bought by Charlton’s currently suspended training partner John O’Shea and James Bester Bloodstock for $260,000 from Bhima Thoroughbreds’ draft at Magic Millions Gold Coast in 2024, Cellarmaster was held up to debut as a July two-year-old, and was turned out straight afterwards.

He resumed early last December for a campaign in which he won a 1400-metre maiden at Randwick on Boxing Day, and a 1550-metre Canterbury Benchmark 72 three starts later, before his strong Phar Lap Stakes effort. On that day, he came within 1.22 lengths of winner Sixties (Flying Artie), while subsequent Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) queen Panova (Trapeze Artist) ran fifth.

Given a brief freshen-up in the paddock during a two-month gap between runs, Cellarmaster returned with a third at Kensington and a fourth on a Rosehill Heavy 9. He then met the same track rating when an eye-catching fifth in Eagle Farm’s Gunsynd Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) at his latest start on June 13, making good ground from last after drawing wide to be beaten 4.38 lengths, with Skyhook (Written Tycoon) winning by 3.32.

Charlton says Cellarmaster will likely show his best next season, but that he was expecting a strong showing as the gelding seeks to become a stakes winner this Saturday.

“He’s been racing well, this should be a similar sort of race to when he ran competitively in the Gunsynd, so I think he can be competitive here,” Charlton told ANZ News.

“He’s come through his last start very well, and that was a good effort. He couldn’t have done much more really. If he’d drawn a good gate, he still wouldn’t have beaten the winner, but you could make a good case that he could have been a good second or third.

“If he draws a good gate this week, he runs a lot closer, so we’ll hope for a better gate. He’s a progressive horse and this is the right sort of race for him.

“His Phar Lap run was a good, solid effort. The winner there [Sixties] is a decent horse, and he had decent form finishing behind him with the likes of Panova.”

Charlton said the Winx Guineas would be Cellarmaster’s last run of the preparation, and provide a pointer to the type of races he might be steered towards in the spring.

“He’s been a nice, straightforward horse,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see the best of him till next season probably.

“He was a good type of yearling. He wasn’t going to be early, but looked a nice horse who’d get over a Classic trip in time. He might stay a little bit further into the future.”

Wet tracks have been a scourge of the winter, and the Sunshine Coast was rated a Heavy 8 on Monday. A strong chance of rain is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, before fine, sunny weather leading up to race time.

In any event, Charlton said the prospect of a third successive run on heavy going held no fears.

“I don’t think so. He seems well, and he’s got lots of fitness on his side,” Charlton said of Cellarmaster, who’ll have a new jockey in Ryan Maloney.

In a career of nine starts, Lyneham has won three times this season – a Sunshine Coast maiden, an Eagle Farm Class 1 and that Gold Coast BM65 – to apparently earn one distinction.

“One of the owners told me Lyneham’s the first ever southern hemisphere-bred progeny of Wootton Bassett to win three races as a two-or three-year-old in Australasia,” Munce said.

Another quirky fact he has going for him is that he’s also one of three city winners by Wootton Bassett called Lyneham racing at present – one’s in England and another’s in France – with both names taken from neighbouring towns in southern England.

“I’d like to have a few more Wootton Bassetts in the stable,” Munce said. “I don’t think they’re overly big types, but Lyneham is a good mile or 2000-metre type. He’s certainly going to furnish in to a lovely horse.

“He’s still a colt, and he’s got a good workable nature once he gets into a prep. Once he’s gelded he’ll do the job up here in Brisbane for sure.”

Any success coming Lyneham’s way will contrast his sales history.

He was in Coolmore’s draft at Inglis Easter 2024 but was passed in short of a $100,000 reserve. He was then offered in Valiant Stud’s draft at Inglis’s Ready2Race Sale, but failed to meet a $120,000 reserve. The Munce’s swooped to buy him on Inglis Digital for $55,000.

With the great Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) the fourth sire of both of his parents, Lyneham showed immediate ability with a close-up debut sixth at Doomben over an unsuitable 1200 metres and – like Cellarmaster after his first run – was immediately turned out.

“He showed us a bit in the early days, and we were always confident he’d run a mile plus, especially considering his dam won an Oaks,” Munce said.

“We put blinkers on for his last start when he won at the Gold Coast. He loomed up as if he was going to put a few lengths on them, but once he thought he had the job done he put the brakes on.

“But winning last start over 1700 metres, I like the profile of coming back to a good strong mile at Caloundra.”

Munce knows Saturday’s task represents “a throw at the stumps” but says Lyneham has the talent to compete.

“I was a bit surprised to see the strength of the race,” he said. “Obviously this is a big step up in grade from what he comes out of, but I think he can run a good, cheeky race.”

Lyneham has won on soft going but hasn’t been tried on heavy, but at least drops from 59 kilograms in his last-start win to 57 kilograms under the race’s set weights conditions.

Bookmakers on Monday had Bjorn Baker’s filly Within The Law (Lucky Vega) as a $3 favourite after her seventh in Saturday’s Tatt’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m).

The Lisa Latta-trained Platinum Pantheon (Hanseatic) was second-elect at $7 after a narrow second in Ipswich’s TL Cooney (1350m) to the Michael Lakey-trained Kohler Kid (Spieth), who’s at $7 for Saturday.