Sired by magic

Image: Per Incanto (Credit: Little Avondale)

On an enchanting weekend of early spring racing, the sun shone, the good horses returned and the signs were strong that the Italian stallion whose name means “by magic” will be in for another powerhouse season.

Per Incanto (Street Cry) , flagbearer for New Zealand’s Little Avondale Stud, raised his latest stakes winner when Matt Smith’s Prima Bella sealed a winning hat-trick in the Toy Show Quality (Gr 3, 1100m).

Remarkably, she became the fifth stakes winner by Per Incanto from the same family, and she gave her sire his 38th black type victor from 731 runners worldwide at a more than healthy 5.20 per cent.

In Australia he now has 16 from 221 at a robust 7.24 per cent, underlining why he’s increasingly popular west of the Tasman.

Per Incanto had a booming season in 2025-26, finishing sixth on the Australian general sires’ table, up from a previous best of 15th the year before.  And he did it with just 94 starters, while the rest of the top 10 averaged 280 apiece.

Back home, the sire of nine Group 1 winners took out New Zealand’s two main stallion laurels,  the Dewar Award for the highest Australasian progeny earnings and, for the second time, the Centaine Award for worldwide money.

But there are strong signs the 22-year-old could match or better even those results in 2026-27, according to Little Avondale’s Sam Williams.

Prima Bella, who continues a love affair with Per Incanto for Mystery Downs owners Frank and Christine Cook, has risen from benchmark 78 grade to winning a G3 through six runs in her winter campaign.

She remains lightly raced with just 15 starts to her name, having made her debut at three and then requiring a year off through injury immediately afterwards, so connections can likely look forward to more success with her this season. That includes continuing on this spring, trainer Smith said.

Two hours after her win, another star of Per Incanto’s 2025-26 season, Gringotts, turned in a superb resumption when flashing home for third behind match race pair Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) and Sheza Alibi (Saxon Warrior) in a high quality Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) deserving of its standing as the season’s first top tier contest.

And in the second one this Saturday, Caulfield’s Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), Per Incanto’s highest earner of last term Jimmysstar will kick his spring off. He is currently the $3.50 favourite.

He might meet another Per Incanto there in the Cooks’ triple Group winner Evaporate, the Team Hayes trained five-year-old who resumed with a third in Caulfield’s Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) last Saturday week.

The Hayes’s six-year-old gelding Oak Hill, a G2 winner in February, is also set to resume soon.

Ciaron Maher’s group one winning seven-year-olds Gringotts and Jimmysstar give proof of the ability of Per Incanto’s stock to train on, but Williams is hugely excited by the stallion’s younger brigades coming through.

His current three-year-olds are from his first crop sired when his service fee rose from $NZ15,000 (plus GST) to $25,000. And his new two-year-olds were conceived when his fee doubled to $50,000, bringing an increased quality of mares again.

Per Incanto, who’s gone from $60,000 to $75,000 this year, and his son and sole barnmate Little Brose ($15,000) have attracted the highest number of Australian mares Little Avondale has had for the coming spring. Breeders including Jonathan Munz, Sledmere Stud, North and Milburn Creek are among patrons.

Little wonder that despite Per Incanto’s advancing years, Williams is in a bullish mood as the new season opens for the stallion, who was US-bred but raced in Italy.

“I’m pretty excited about the season ahead,” Williams told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I think Per Incanto could be in for a very big year.

“The great thing about him is his horses train on; they’re not just one season wonders.

“Gringotts turned in a very big run on Saturday. We’ll see Jimmysstar in the Memsie, and Evaporate looks in for a very exciting campaign.

“So there’s some really nice older horses there who’ve got big campaigns ahead of them, but there’s also a lot of young Per Incantos coming through who trainers have big wraps on.

“He had four black type performing two-year-olds last season, from his first crop after his fee went to $25,000 from $15,000.

“They’re from his best book of mares to have hit the racetrack, and they’ve just turned three. And then his current two-year-olds came off a fee of $50,000, so these are his better books coming through.”

Among Per Incanto’s New Zealand three-year-olds to watch this spring, Williams highlighted Fortunato, co-trained by Jimmysstar’s original conditioner Guy Lowry. The gelded full-brother to G1 winner Bonham debuted with a win at Taupo on August 16 and will surely come under attention from Australian buyers.

Roger James and Robert Wellwood have the gelding Incandescent, who won twice at two including in Listed class in June, while Tony Pike has Just The Berries, who debuted with a third at Te Aroha, also in June.

“Fortunato looks a very exciting horse,” Williams said. “Guy Lowry said to me, ‘Sam, I honestly think this horse could be up there with Jimmysstar’, so that’s a big statement.

“Roger James and Robert Wellwood have a couple of really nice ones – Incandescent is showing great promise – and Tony Pike tells me Just The Berries is one of the better three-year-olds in his stable.”

While Per Incanto’s new two-year-olds are from what Williams calls some of the finest mares the stallion has attracted, the future also looks bright through the yearlings he’ll have at market next year.

Little Avondale will offer a full brother to Evaporate who Williams describes as “a magnificent horse”.

There’s also a filly “who’s a stunner” and is a half-sister to last season’s Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Desert Lightning (Pride Of Dubai) and is a full-sister to Oak Hill and Oak Lightning, a gelding who was juvenile stakes placed at Caulfield on debut for Moody-Coleman in April before meeting a premature end.

“I wouldn’t just say I’ve got the best draft on paper, but it’s also the best draft on type that we’ve had going to the sales, led by a good number of Per Incanto’s colts,” Williams said.

Prima Bella continues a stunning run of stakes winners for Per Incanto with the family of her Kiwi third dam Sound Lover (Sound Reason).

Evaporate, who’s been four times G1-placed, also has Sound Lover as his third dam. She’s the second dam of G3 winner Belluci Babe and Listed victor Pure Incanto, and she’s the dam of the 2012-born gelding who kicked the pedigree cross off, Magnum, who won a New Zealand Listed before being multiple stakes-placed in Singapore.

Smith told ANZ Prima Bella would likely now stay in work to seek to also become a multiple stakes winner.

“She’s come through the run really well,” he said. “We’re really happy with getting that Group win on the board, which was obviously a big thing for a mare, and we’ll keep going, I think.

“I haven’t quite decided on a target – we could try her up at 1200 metres for the first time, or stick to 1000 or 1100, but there’s a few options for her in Sydney and Melbourne.

“We thought she would get somewhere near this level previously but she didn’t get there, but this prep she’s just kept improving with every run.”

Per Incanto, meanwhile, will be capped at 80 mares in his 16th covering season, while his Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winning six-year-old son Little Brose looks set to cover some 130 mares in his second, after serving 141 last year.

“We’ve limited Per Incanto’s numbers, only because he’s 22. I’m not worried about his fertility, we’re just looking after him,” Williams said. “And it becomes a matter of supply and demand now too.

“It’s also exciting for Per Incanto that we’ve got Little Brose standing beside him. That’s where we can really capitalise. We’ve got people going to Little Brose who might not have the budget for Per Incanto.

“We’ve got the first couple of foals by Little Brose on the ground, and I couldn’t be happier with them.”

He added: “With the mares that are coming through the gate for Per Incanto, you can just see with the rise in his fee the difference in the page and certainly in the style and type of mare.

“He deserved to go to $75,000, but once again in the proven stallion ranks, if you compare him to the top 10 in Australia and their service fees, he is outstanding value. He really is.

“He looks magnificent at the moment, as he’s dropping his winter coat.

“It would be outstanding if he can be top 10 in Australia again this season, but I’d just love to see him picking up a good number of stakes horses and having another successful season on the track.”