Blue Army marches to impressive Guineas win
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Blue Army (Savabeel) produced a fine performance to upset some smart opposition in the Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) at Caulfield yesterday and in the process hand the Waikato Stud-based sire Savabeel (Zabeel) his 121st individual stakes winner.
Having finished second on his only start as a two-year-old over 1400 metres at Cranbourne, Blue Army came into the Group 2 race having shed his maiden tag over 1400 metres at Warrnambool on November 5.
Ridden by Damian Lane, Blue Army scored a half-length win from Blazerro (Pierro) with Festival Dancer (Choisir) a length away third.
Price last won the Sandown Guineas in 2007 with Schilling (Bianconi) and yesterday’s win with Blue Army was his first with Kent Jnr who joined him in a partnership in March last year.
Having vacated their Caulfield stable during the week, the ARAMCO Racing-owned Blue Army handed the training duo their first winner from their new base at Cranbourne.
“He’s our first winner from our new Cranbourne stable and he’s a beautiful colt,” Kent Jnr said.
“It is a massive result because the owner has flown all the way from Singapore for the day and to get a win with him here is huge. We always thought he’d be better in the autumn, to be honest. We didn’t know if he would be going out after this run but we set him for the race.
“He was down at our Warrnambool stable initially and now at Cranbourne, so it worked out well.”
Lane said Blue Army had been well prepared and educated and had come on from his first-up win.
“I was able to use him a little bit early, put him in a spot, switch him off,” Lane said. “Everything you want from a horse he did for me, and I knew I was the winner a long way out.”
Purchased for $220,000 by Wattle Bloodstock and HBL Racing at Book 1 of the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale from the Widden Stud draft, Blue Army (3 c Savabeel – Keyarna Blue by O’Reilly) is out of Listed-winning O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Keyarna Blue and she herself is out of fellow stakes winner Oh Blue Angel (Semipalatinsk).
Blue Army becomes the 23rd stakes winner bred on the Savabeel-O’Reilly cross, which is headed by seven Group 1 winners and fires at a stakes-winner-to-runner strike-rate of 14 per cent.
In New Zealand, Savabeel is currently sitting at the top of the general sires table, over NZ$700,000 ahead of his nearest rival and looks on track to clinch his eighth New Zealand Champion sire title.
Later on in the afternoon, the Mike Moroney-trained Sound (9 h Lando – Sky Dancing by Exit To Nowhere) made it back-to-back wins in the Zipping Classic (Gr 2, 2400m) as he landed the Group 2 at Caulfield yesterday.
The nine-year-old German import has not saluted the judge since his victory in the race 12 months ago, but he signalled he was back to somewhere like his best when he finished second in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 3, 2600m) at Flemington on November 6.
Ridden by Jamie Mott, Sound settled nicely behind a pedestrian tempo in fifth place on the rails, before improving behind runners coming to the turn. He was urged to the lead with 200 metres left to travel and eventually pulled away to win a shade cosily, half a length ahead of Dr Drill (Galileo) in second. Bendigo Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) winner Wentwood (Pour Moi) was a further three-quarters of a length away in third.
The son of Lando (Acatenango), a Group 1 runner-up in his native Germany, came to Australia for the 2018 Melbourne Spring Carnival and ran in both the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), as he did the following year.
However, prior to Saturday’s victory, Sound had registered only one win from 28 starts in Australia and New Zealand.
“Nine-years-old and probably racing at his best,” Moroney said post-race.
“These staying-bred horses, German horses in particular, they’ve got longevity in their legs without any doubt, and he’s done a great job.
“He has been a bit maligned as being a bridesmaid, but he got it right today and he’s now won $1.8 million in prize-money.”
Moroney hopes to find a home at stud in New Zealand once Sound’s racing days are over.
But before that, Moroney said Sound may back up in next week’s Pakenham Cup (Listed, 2500m) before again heading across the Tasman to run in the Auckland Cup (Gr 1, 3200m).
“He’s hopefully going to find a stud in New Zealand, we’re hoping anyway,” Moroney said.
“It is a good place to breed nice stayers and they are renowned for doing it. He’d be the right sort of horse in the right home.”
“He’ll probably go back to the Auckland Cup at this stage but we might back him up in the Pakenham Cup next week,” Moroney said.
“We’ll see how he pulls up.”
Sound is out of Italian Listed winner Sky Dancing (Exit To Nowhere), making him a brother to Group 1 winner Scalo, while he is a half-brother to Group 3 scorer Sexy Lady (Danehill Dancer).
Sound is one of 28 stakes scorers for Lando and they are headed by seven top-flight winners. The stallion was euthanised in 2014 after fracturing his leg.