Calthorpe hopes his Harmonious hot-pot can rise to the occasion once more
Two-year-old filly travels to Adelaide in search of black type in bid to follow Group 1-winning stablemate Media Award
Chris Calthorpe is unsure whether his homebred filly Harmonious Senora (Glass Harmonium) is up to the elite grade, but then he had the same thought cross his mind with his shock Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Media Award (Shamus Award).
The two-year-old filly has travelled to Adelaide, the scene of Media Award’s greatest triumph, from Calthorpe’s base at Geelong in search of a similar winning result in today’s Oaklands Plate (Listed, 1400m) at Morphettville and, just as Harmonious Senora’s currently more decorated stablemate demonstrated in the early part of her career, she has continued to step up and answer each question asked of her.
“She wasn’t very big and had grown up with a bit of attitude,” the trainer told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We did a lot with her at the farm and we brought her into my stables at Geelong. The intention is to give them two or three weeks, and then most of them get tipped out having gone shin sore or showing that they’d had enough.
“But this filly just kept stepping up to the mark. Every time she was asked to gallop she did it properly and she never left an oat.”
Harmonious Senora carries the same silks as Media Award, being owned and bred by Calthorpe’s principal backer Mark Arrowsmith of Aintree Park Stud.
The filly made her debut last month in a two-year-old handicap over 1212 metres at Geelong, opening in the market as an unfancied $31 chance and sent off a friendless $51.
However, despite her lack of willing backers she produced a strong finish under claiming apprentice Tahlia Hope to post an eye-catching neck victory, and in doing so became a unique statistic in herself as the first two-year-old winner for her sire, the 2011 Mackinnon Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) victor Glass Harmonium (Verglas).
“Everyday you could see her mature more mentally and how she’d calmed down. So I turned to Mark Arrowsmith and said, ‘there aren’t really any signs as to why we should send her back to the farm and tip her out’. And he said ‘mate, if you’re happy with her, just do what you’ve got to do and see where she ends up’,” Calthorpe said.
“We gave her three trials and she did everything right, her attitude was good. Being based at Geelong, we don’t get many two-year-old races, but this one came up in the calendar.
“She drew a nice gate [5] but I was struggling to get a rider, until Tahlia Hope put her hand up. I wasn’t sure we’d win, but I thought we’d run top four or five as she was doing everything right. But she came out and won like a $3 chance. She was really tough and strong through the line.
“It’s a very similar thing with Media Award in how she’s just kept stepping up. I don’t think she’s going to be a Group 1 horse like Media Award, but at the time I wouldn’t have thought Media Award would be a Group 1 winner either.”
Media Award did not debut until November of her three-year-old year, finishing eighth at Wangaratta, before breaking her maiden at her fourth start in March. However, Harmonious Senora has shown somewhat more precocity in winning her first start at two and, while another difference is in how they were acquired – the former sourced at the sales for a paltry $5,000, with Harmonious Senora conceived off just a $2,200 service fee to the relatively unheralded and fertility-challenged sire Glass Harmonium – in each case it nonetheless demonstrates Calthorpe’s willingness to search around the periphery for his next stable star.
Harmonious Senora is out Calthorpe’s WA-raced mare Senora Vega, a two-time winner to midweek metropolitan grade and from the first crop of northern hemisphere shuttle stallion Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill).
At stud, she had previously produced six foals, four of which had ended up in Malaysia or Singapore, with three of her early produce by low profile stallion Phenomenons (Giant’s Causeway), two by Ruwi (Unfuwain) and one by Domesday (Red Ransom).
The decision to go to British import Glass Harmonium, a rig stallion who up to that point had sired 27 winners from 48 starters and just the one stakes placegetter to shout about, lay with Calthorpe’s trusted pedigree advisor, with Harmonious Senora just one of three named foals from what would be Glass Harmonium’s penultimate crop.
Since 2018, the stallion has added three stakes winners, including two winners of the Launceston Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) and the Darby Racing-owned Harmony Rose, a Listed winner who finished a neck second in last year’s Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and fetched $300,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in May.
“We have a guy that looks at matings for us, with families and nicks and all that jazz, and he said the dam would work well with Glass Harmonium,” Calthorpe said.
“A lot of the Glass Harmoniums are a little hot and I don’t mind buying racehorses that are a little bit hot. I remember as a racehorse he probably never reached his full potential as he was a little bit fiery himself.
“I had a couple of them [by Glass Harmonium] come through the system that could gallop alright and they were a little bit hot, too. So, I thought if we could find the right mare to send to him, it might not be a bad play. Senora Vega has the best temperament as a mare, and if she could throw that temperament into a horse by Glass Harmonium, you might get one with a bit of ability.
“Hopefully we might have one, so we’ll see how we go.”
Today, Harmonious Senora is a $6,50 chance to remain unbeaten, in a market headed by the Prime Thoroughbreds-owned, unbeaten filly Birdies Galore (Spieth) ($3.60). But win, lose or draw, Calthorpe has his eyes set on future targets and she could be another to head to WA for their summer carnival, along with stable star Media Award, who it was revealed last week would target the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) at Ascot.
“Whatever she does tomorrow she’s had a good prep and will be going to the paddock after, where hopefully she can mature a bit more physically and mentally and we might have a nice three-year-old going forward. She’s got the scope and I’d probably say she’d make into a nice miler,” Calthorpe said.
“All being equal, if she won and came out of it well, there’s every possibility we’d nominate her for the Thousand Guineas. But we’re pretty keen to take Media Award to Western Australia for the Railway and the Northerly, so she could be on the plane with her to the WA Guineas.”