Breakthrough Magic Millions win for Zhongli Thoroughbreds’ Soaring Ambition
Gold Coast looms for Neasham-trained Wyong two-year-old-winning daughter of Not A Single Doubt
Talented juvenile filly Soaring Ambition (Not A Single Doubt) provided Chinese owner Gu Tao with his biggest success to date yesterday and, importantly, at a time when his burgeoning Zhongli Thoroughbreds operation is about to enter its important phase as a major Australian racing and breeding operation.
The Annabel Neasham-trained Soaring Ambition, one of three yearlings Mr Gu purchased on the Gold Coast in January, came from near last and overcame a scrimmage on the home turn to score an impressive victory in the $200,000 Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic (RL, 1100m).
Bookmakers reacted quickly, installing the filly as $11 second favourite behind the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) for next month’s $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) on the Gold Coast.
The enormity of the win by Mr Gu’s filly – in a race previously won by subsequent Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winners Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and her own sire Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) – was not lost on Zhongli Thoroughbreds’ Alex Kingston.
The experienced Kingston is overseeing Zhongli Thoroughbreds, a NSW Southern Highlands breeding and racing operation, which will for the first time be offering six yearlings under its own banner at next month’s Gold Coast sale.
“Oh my gosh – it’s unbelievable and she was very impressive,” Kingston told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She came into this preparation with this race in mind. She’s gone through pre-training and been spelling at the farm under my care and she thrived during her spell here and went back into pre-training beautifully at Thenford Farm and obviously Annabel took her back and she said how much she’d grown and improved.
“This preparation she just knuckled down and everything’s just fallen into place beautifully and she’s done an amazing job (to win).”
Soaring Ambition (a firming $11 chance), who was runner-up in a Canterbury barrier trial on November 30, had a neck margin over Hellbent (I Am Invincible) filly Miss Hellfire ($5.50) while Wealthy Investor (Capitalist) ($18) was another short-head away in third.
Command Approved (Spirit Of Boom), who led and then got off the fence rounding the home turn, finished fourth, while race favourite Hell I Am (Hellbent) ran fifth.
“I’m still having heart palpitations. I thought she was going to get brought down at one stage around the bend, the horse inside her drifted out and I thought she looked like she clipped heels,” Neasham said.
“She’s such a gutsy filly. I’ve always had a lot of time for her and it’s obviously great for Mr Gu. She’s just been an obvious filly for this race all along. We haven’t got her to the races until today, but we were pretty confident (she could win).”
Neasham said the filly would now be prepared for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast on January 15.
Berry put his hand up for yesterday’s riding duties after a jump out last month after being impressed with the filly’s professional attitude.
“It was a great effort because the last track where you want to get that sort of interference on the corner is Wyong,” Berry said.
“We were wide with cover, which is where we thought we’d be from that wide alley. I tracked up so good to the corner, and I felt like the winner, but all that got taken away from me rounding the bend. She picked herself up quickly and she won with a lot of authority, which is good to see.
“I rode her in a jump out two or three weeks before she trialled and I said to Annabel (that) I want to stick with this filly. I said, ‘I’m not sure she’s the best one I’ve sat on but she’s one of the most professional’ and we saw that again today.”
A $270,000 purchase by Zhongli Thoroughbreds from the Arrowfield Stud draft at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Soaring Ambition was the most expensive of three horses Mr Gu bought in January.
He also paid $260,000 for a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) filly, the second foal out of Listed winner Telepathic (Mossman), and $210,000 for an Exceed And Excel (Danehill) colt out of De Groove (Dehere), making him a brother to Hong Kong Group 3 winner Big Party.
Named Exogroove, the colt is in training with Peter and Paul Snowden.
“Soaring Ambition was the most precocious one out of the lot of them. When they got home from the sales I went through them and they asked for my opinion and I said, ‘well, the Not A Single Doubt filly is going to be a two-year-old’,” Kingston said.
“She had the right head and she had the right physical type and when we got her broken in, she was the one who stood out that she was going to be the two-year-old out of the group.”
Mr Gu, who is unlikely to be physically on the Gold Coast because of travel restrictions but is expected to be a buyer as well as a seller at the Magic Millions auction.
Kingston said: “He’s very interested in fillies. We’ve got a couple already and now that Soaring Ambition has shown a lot of ability as a two-year-old, it will give him a lot of confidence to continue buying at that level, which is good.”
Soaring Ambition, the 79th stakes winner for the now pensioned Arrowfield sire Not A Single Doubt, joins Cusack, a colt by the stallion from the same 2019 foal crop, to win the two Magic Millions-restricted races conducted so far, with the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained youngster having been triumphant in the Magic Millions Ballarat 2YO Classic (RL, 1000m) last month.
Filly Soaring Ambition is one of three winners out of the unraced Tango (Starcraft), herself a sister to Group 3 winner Lunar Rise and a half-sister to the stakes-placed winners Crafty (Manhattan Rain) and King Of The Dance (Animal Kingdom).
Tango, who is owned by Arrowfield Stud, has a Castelvecchio (Dundeel) filly at foot and returned to the same dual Group 1 winner this breeding season.
Wisdom Of Water back on the winners’ list
Two races earlier, the Neasham-trained Wisdom Of Water (Headwater) went some way to redemption after 18 months in the racing wilderness to win the $100,000 Magic Millions Wyong 3YO and 4YO Stakes (1200m).
Ridden by Rachel King, who had ridden him at his past two starts, got up inside in the straight to defeat Compassionate (Into Mischief) by a neck. Pre-race favourite Snitzonfire (Snitzel) and Tanker (Pride Of Dubai) dead-heated for third.
Wisdom Of Water finished third in the $300,000 Warra (1000m) at Kembla Grange on November 20 and he then ran fifth over 1100 metres at Rosehill on December 4 after a three-start Melbourne campaign.
“It’s been good getting to know him the last couple of starts and getting to know his little tricks because he’s not easy (to ride),” King said post-race.
“All credit to the team, they’ve got him in fantastic form. He just needed that little bit of luck today, which came his way, and he proved that he was the class horse on the day.”
While it looked like Wisdom Of Water could be the victim of another hard-luck tale when early race leader Glamour And Glory (Star Turn), who jockey Tommy Berry kicked up to hold the fence and force Snitzonfire to sit outside the leader, but King believes being held-up for a run in fact aided the four-year-old.
“(It helped) because he’s only got a short burst, but he’s also got to do the first half (of the race) right. He’s done it a bit upside down and gone a bit too hard (in the past), but doing the first part right gave us the chance to finish off,” said King.
Neasham confirmed the Magic Millions carnival in January would likely be Wisdom Of Water’s target having won three times at the track as a two-year-old.
“It was a lovely ride. She just obviously parked up behind them and I thought she was going to go the wrong way at one stage, but it opened up for her,” the winning trainer said.
“It got a bit tight but it was great to see him knuckle down and fight. It’s been a long time between drinks for him, but it was perfect conditions for him today.
“He’s been looking great but for whatever reason he didn’t enjoy racing down in Melbourne. He came back (to Sydney) and I thought he was super at Kembla (Grange) behind Eleven Eleven and then he ran well the other day. He’s been knocking on the door to get back into the winners’ enclosure.”
When Aquis Farm’s Tony and Justin Fung bought into Wisdom Of Water as a two-year-old colt, there were Group 1 targets and a stud career in mind.
The now four-year-old, who had a brief stint with Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr in Melbourne after starting his career with Toby and Trent Edmonds on the Gold Coast, has been trained by Neasham for the past 12 months.
Yesterday’s victory was the first for Wisdom Of Water, who has not been gelded, since he won the Ken Russell Memorial (Gr 3, 1200m) at the Gold Coast in May 2020.
At his only start at Group 1 level, in the J J Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1400m) as a juvenile, he ran fifth, beaten four lengths behind Rothfire (Rothesay).
“He is a very talented colt and I am obviously delighted for the Fungs as they’re great supporters of mine and they will be very happy as he’s one of their favourites,” Neasham said.
“I am sure we will try and take him up to the Gold Coast. He’s won races up there, so being a Magic Millions horse, there will be an option for him up there, no doubt.”
Wisdom Of Water, the best of three winners to date for the city-placed mare Regal Tier (Royal Academy), was initially purchased at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $70,000 by Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman for Chinese owner Mr An from the Eureka Stud draft.
His younger brother Water Bomber, who was purchased for $280,000 by Price and Kent Jnr at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, ran fourth in the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Flemington last month at his only race start so far.
Regal Tier has a colt at foot, also by Vinery Stud’s Headwater (Exceed And Excel), and she was covered by Darley’s first season sire Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) in September.
Wisdom Of Water is one of four stakes winners for the Vinery Stud-based sire Headwater and he stood the 2021 season at the New South Wales-based nursery at a fee of $16,500 (inc GST).