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Breathtaking Tentyris storms home to strike in Lightning
Trevor Marshallsea
ANZ News
Tentyris (Street Boss) stamped himself as the most exciting sprinter in Australia and took a large step towards living up to Anthony Freedman’s huge assessment of him with a breathtaking win in Saturday’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at Flemington.
After the colt stormed to victory in last November’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), Freedman told his son and co-trainer Sam he could be the best horse he ever comes across, despite the younger trainer’s many future years in this business, and Tentyris being only a spring three-year-old at the time.
It certainly looked hard to argue that point when Godolphin's homebred son of the remarkable Street Boss (Street Cry) powered to his third straight victory - and his fourth from his last five starts - in the Lightning.
While his 2.25-length Coolmore win was dominant, Saturday’s triumph in his first attempt at open company in the weight-for-age feature outstripped it, and put racing fans on watch for an explosive autumn to come from the chestnut.
One of four winners on the day, all at stakes level, for Damian Lane, Tentyris was settled in a clear last place of the eight, and was ten lengths off the lead on settling.
What's On
After a heady pace was set, first by Beiwacht (Bivouac) and then by Giga Kick (Scissor Kick), the well backed $2.60 favourite was eight lengths off the front runners at the 300 metres, and three lengths behind - and still last - inside the 200 metres.
It seemed he couldn’t possibly have the finish to haul in the leaders, but at the 150 metres, as the brave filly My Gladiola (I Am Invincible) was being hailed the winner, Tentyris simply exploded in phenomenal style to power to the lead in a few strides, going on to score by 0.75 lengths.
My Gladiola, well supported at $7, had to settle for second behind the colt, as she had in the Coolmore. Tough mare Benedetta (Hellbent) flew home for third at $26, as $3.50 second elect Giga Kick weakened into fifth.
Lane had taken over from injured regular rider Mark Zahra for his second ride on Tentyris, having run a 0.1 length second on him in last year’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) behind Devil Night (Extreme Choice).
And while the colt’s backers will have been anxious a furlong from home, the calm final pre-race words from Sam Freedman to his jockey - “trust the horse” - proved prescient in the most emphatic style.
“Dad and I spoke in the last couple of days, about how in a small field, they can be tactical and you can get sucked into riding a horse out of his comfort zone,” Freedman told Racing.com.
“Last prep, when we rode him a little close in the Danehill first-up, he was a bit soft late. He balanced up in the Gothic to let him work home [and win]. It was the same in the Coolmore and the same today.
“They always take off a little bit early in these races. You’ve only got to be in front at the end. That’s all that matters
“His turn of foot, when you ask him, is there as soon as you need it. Our instructions for Damian were, ‘Just trust that when you need him, he’s there - let them all go’.
“They always take off a little bit early in these races. You’ve only got to be in front at the end. That’s all that matters.”
As for how special Tentyris might be, Freedman said he’d heard telling words after the Coolmore from his father. Anthony was part of the Freedman Brothers team who reigned supreme in the 1990s under older sibling Lee, with such celebrated performers as Schillaci (Salieri) and Mahogany (Last Tycoon), both two-time Lightning winners.
“Anthony has been in the game for so long. He actually said to me at the end of the spring campaign, ‘This might be the best horse you ever train’,” Sam said.
“I thought, ‘You might be suggesting you trained one better back in the 90s or 2000s’. So there was a bit of cheek there.
“But they had Mahogany, Schillaci, and some champions. But he [Tentyris] is building his own record that is hopefully going to be right up there with some of the best.”
Before Godolphin’s switch last year from having a private trainer to dispersing their team across nine different stables, Anthony and Sam Freedman still were given a limited number of runners by Sheikh Mohammed’s empire, including 2019 Blue Diamond winner Lyre (Lonhro).
Sam Freedman had no hesitation saying Tentyris had put himself at the forefront of the horses the stable had trained for the royal blue, as he forecast a likely start for the colt in the VRC Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 7.
“It means a lot because these horses don’t come around very often,” he said.
“Godolphin have been huge supporters of ours for such a long time and we’ve had some really good horses for them over the years, but this will be top of the list.”
Lane supported Freedman’s assertion.
“He’s an incredible talent,” the winning jockey said of Tentyris.
“We just only had the one play with him, with how he steps out of the barriers. It was just a risk whether the 1000 [metres] was going to be too short. It certainly wasn’t.
“Mid-race, I had to ask him to pick up the bridle and when he did, he really joined in well and as has become his trademark, that last bit of his race was outstanding - incredible.”
Asked how good the colt was, Lane said: “I think the development in his temperament, his attitude, is really good now. As an older horse, he’s really competitive. He’s shown he can go to the top level and he’s going to be winning good races for a bit to come yet.”
Tentyris is by a chestnut out of a chestnut, being by Street Boss and being the second and best runner out of Deity (Exceed And Excel), a daughter of four-time Group 1 winner Divine Madonna (Hurricane Sky), who won three of 14 starts including two in Sydney.
Deity slipped in 2023 but now has a filly foal bred on a similar cross to Tentyris, being by Anamoe (Street Boss). The mare was covered by Darley star stallion Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) last October.
Street Boss is enjoying a break-out campaign - despite this being his 14th season with runners in Australia.
The 21-year-old entered Saturday sitting eighth on the Australian general sires’ table - up from an 18th place finish last term and a career best of tenth in 2022-23.
Hard Kick lives up to his name in Talindert win
Hard Kick (All Too Hard) surged up the betting for the autumn’s two-year-old features and brought a welcome tonic for Lindsay Park with an impressive victory in Saturday’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Flemington.
The son of Vinery’s ultra consistent sire All Too Hard (Casino Prince) went in as a well supported $3 second favourite after winning all three of his jump-outs, and didn’t disappoint his backers.
Jumping from gate four of seven for Damian Lane, Hard Kick bolted to an early three-length lead, maintained a clear margin heading onto the course proper, then lived up to his name with a burst of acceleration at the 200 metres to put the issue beyond doubt.
The gelding scored by 2.75 lengths from Anthony and Sam Freedman’s $2.30 favourite Zambales (Pinatubo), with another Godolphin colt in Diameter (Brazen Beau) a further 1.75 lengths away in third for Chris Waller at $13.
Hard Kick also made a surge up the betting for next Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) - to the fourth line at $8 - and to $26 for the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 21 at Rosehill. He’s not nominated for either at this stage.
Bearing Lindsay Park’s famed white with the green sash and black sleeves, Hard Kick also provided a welcome boost for the Hayes family after the death on Friday of former star Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice), aged 22. That came while the Hayes Brothers’ Euroa stable still recovers from extensive recent bushfire damage.
Trained by the brothers’ father David Hayes, Miss Finland won five Group 1s including the rare double of the Golden Slipper and the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m). She also performed well at stud, with seven winners from nine runners including Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) queen Stay With Me (Street Cry) and four other stakes horses, two of whom placed at the top level.
“We’re not sure he’s as good as Miss Finland, but he looked pretty good there,” JD Hayes said of Hard Kick.
“What a thrill. He’s been very well educated at home and we thought he was pretty good and he won with authority there.”
Asked what impressed him the most, Hayes said it was the winning margin.
“That was the most easy part of it, but how he was able to control the tempo and kick off. It was a very professional performance,” he said.
Hayes was non committal when asked whether the $55,000 late entry fee would be paid to allow Hard Kick to run in the $2 million Blue Diamond.
“We’re not sure he’s as good as Miss Finland, but he looked pretty good there
“We’ll keep the option open next week as he did win with his head on his chest there,” he said, “but there’s plenty of options going ahead with this horse. It’s very exciting.”
Lane was most impressed with Hard Kick, who took quite some pulling up past the post, saying he could be one of the best two-year-olds of the current Australian crop.
“Once the other horses got near him, he wanted to race them, so he’s just a natural competitor and he took a bit of slowing down after the line,” the jockey said.
“He’s a good horse. He’s been impressive at the jump-outs. You’re never sure going up to 1100 [metres] with two-year-olds off the back of 800-metre jump-outs, but he did give the feel he was going to be better past 800 metres and that's what he’s done today.
“He’s gone to another level and really sustained a good gallop throughout. I thought before today that he was a good horse, but just off the better ones, but off the back of that, he might be right up there.”
Bred by the Baxter family’s Macquarie Stud in the lower Hunter Valley, Hard Kick was bought by Avesta Bloodstock from Middlebrook Valley Lodge’s draft at last year’s Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale for $30,000.
Put back through the Inglis Ready To Race sale by Hannover Lodge in October, he was purchased for $140,000 by Lindsay Park under the watchful eye of Hayes family patriarch David, who was in Sydney for The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) win of his star sprinter Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress) four days later.
“He was bought in the Sydney Ready To Race. Dad was representing the company and he was purchased for connections,” JD Hayes said.
Hard Kick became the 32nd individual stakes winner from 857 runners for All Too Hard, who also won the Talindert, in 2012.
He also added to the burgeoning broodmare sire CV of Exceed And Excel (Danehill), which was further enhanced by the victory later in the day of Tentyris (Street Boss) in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m).
The powerfully built bay has a relatively modest pedigree page. He’s the fifth and latest foal of Friendly Donna (Exceed And Excel), who was unplaced in five runs in country NSW.
Second dam Donna Intelligente (Dehere) was a three-time winner - all in Sydney - and a half-sister to Sydney Group 3 winner Burning Sands (Marju) and a Malaysia stakes victor.
Exceed And Excel entered Saturday sitting second on the Australian broodmare sires’ table between two other Danehill sons in Fastnet Rock and Redoute’s Choice, having recorded a personal best finish of third in 2023.
All Too Hard covered a bumper book of 154 mares at a reduced $27,500 last spring in his 13th stud season.
Ciaron’s Star shines in Pierro Plate
Ciaron’s Star (I Am Invincible) and Ciaron Maher go together like a rhyming couplet, and the presumably sizeable space the expensive filly occupies in her trainer’s heart grew only larger at Randwick on Saturday.
Stepping out for her second start after a third over 1000 metres at the same course on January 24, Ciaron’s Star looked impressive in coming away to win the non-black type but nonetheless important two-year-old race, the Pierro Plate (1100m).
Ridden by Tommy Berry, Ciaron’s Star jumped well from gate six of ten, raced outside the leader Better By Far (Farnan), and gained the upper hand over her fellow $5.50 chance in the straight to score by 0.79 lengths.
Persian Wonder (Hello Youmzain) took third, a further 1.2 lengths away at $14, ahead of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained $2.90 favourite Miss Chanel (Tagaloa).
Ciaron’s Star shortened for the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill on March 21, to the fifth line of betting at $21, and her stable said she would likely earn a shot at the world's richest two-year-old race, depending on the outcome of another lead-up run.
That next start would put the filly in line to grab black type, either in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick in two weeks or the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at the same track a week later.
"You've got a Sweet Embrace [Stakes] in two weeks, a Reisling [Stakes] in three weeks, so we will probably look at one or the other and decide from there," said Maher’s assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord.
"She is very straightforward. Mentally, very mature. She was very good first-up, naturally she improved from that. She will just keep improving."
With her win, Ciaron’s Star put herself among her gargantuan stable’s leading two-year-olds, who also include Unit Five (Supido) and the Bennett Racing colt he beat into second in the Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) in Tornado Valley (Too Darn Hot).
Another in the mix is Darby Racing’s Spicy Miss (Trapeze Artist), who ran second in the $1 million Golden Gift (1100m) and the Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1000m).
“She was very good first-up, naturally she improved from that. She will just keep improving
"We have got a very good group of two-year-olds this year," Gerard-Dubord said.
"I wouldn't say there is a stand-out. The two Magic Millions boys, Spicy Miss, and we've got a couple more coming out in the next couple of weeks."
Berry said Ciaron’s Star was progressing in the right way in terms of Golden Slipper calculations.
"Today was all about getting the win to get her close to a Slipper, and she's got to keep improving the way she has, but she's heading in the right direction,” said Berry, adding a clean start was crucial in Saturday’s win.
“That's how these two-year-old races are usually won. They're won at the start and she executed herself well.”
Bred by Widden, Qatar Bloodstock and associates, Ciaron’s Star was a $650,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Maher and Craig Sneesby. She’s raced by a group headed by Ciaron Maher Bloodstock, while carrying Sneesby’s green with white sleeves and red stars.
Regally bred, she’s the fifth and last foal of the late Listed victor Bonny O’Reilly (O’Reilly), an eight-time winner, dam of the stakes-placed Basquiat (Snitzel), and sister to the dam of elite-level winner Espiona (Extreme Choice).
Third dam Escada (Centaine) was a four-time winner and Group 3 placed and threw two dual Group 1 victors in Glamour Puss (Tale Of The Cat) and Vision And Power (Carnegie).
Ciaron’s Star’s victory gave Yarraman Park’s three-time champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) 1077 winners from 1329 runners, at 80.96 per cent.
Extraordinary Autumn Glow stretches unbeaten run to nine
On the same day that the Flemington Group 1 named after Black Caviar was run, Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) showed herself to have the makings of another unbeaten superstar with an effortless first-up win at Randwick in the Apollo Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).
The Inglis Easter sale topper of 2023, bought by Arrowfield’s John Messara and Hermitage Thoroughbreds, wrote another chapter in making her $1.8 million purchase look cheap in cruising to her ninth win from as many starts.
With regular rider James McDonald aboard, the Chris Waller-trained four-year-old crossed from gate nine of ten to settle in the one-one as The Instructor (Russian Revolution) set a medium pace, and the result looked clear from a long way out.
McDonald shook the reins at the 300 metres and Autumn Glow soon had the lead, strolling home to score like the $1.40 favourite she was, by 2.66 lengths.
Her fellow four-year-old mare Aeliana (Castelvecchio) took second at $14, while Lindermann (Lonhro) completed an all-Waller trifecta at $13.
This victory contained a tinge of sentiment. Autumn Glow carries the same Arrowfield black and yellow diamonds borne so memorably by the great Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice), the five-time elite winner - including of the rare Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) and VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) double - and later a top-tier producer.
Messara has always rated Miss Finland as the finest of the many champions he has raced. Autumn Glow may soon cause a rethink.
The magnificently built mare has now earned almost $7.5 million from her nine outings, boosted greatly by her victory in last November’s $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) at the start before this one.
Waller, who went through his own phenomenal winning streak when Winx (Street Cry) won the last 33 of her 43 starts - reviving recent memories of Black Caviar’s (Bel Esprit) 25 from 25 - might now have to consider that he is facing another lengthy unbeaten saga, with all the joy and the pressure such bring.
Sydney’s perennial champion trainer said the seven-time stakes winner Autumn Glow would likely try to add three more elite-level wins to her sole top level triumph so far - last spring’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m). Her autumn will continue in the Verry Elleegant Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) back at Randwick on February 28, before Rosehill’s George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m) on March 21.
A decision would then be made on whether to stretch her in distance to the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) on April 11 or instead target the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on the same day.
“The first run of the prep is the most important,” Waller told reporters.
“She’s lightly raced and let’s just say, the world’s her oyster
“It tells you where they are. You can have as many track gallops, trials and exhibition gallops as you want but until they are under race pressure, you don’t know, but that tells me she’s in a pretty good position.”
McDonald had said pre-race that Autumn Glow possessed the same qualities of two of the other all-time greats he had ridden in Anamoe (Street Boss) and Romantic Warrior (Acclamation).
Saturday’s victory only enhanced his opinion of the mare.
“It’s extremely special, just the way, the ease she’s doing it,” McDonald said of Autumn Glow.
“But you’ve got to remember, though, there’s a lot of stayers in the race, but I’ve ridden a very good horse in Hong Kong and she’s on a trajectory where she’s improving all the time.
“She’s lightly raced and let’s just say, the world’s her oyster.”
Autumn Glow was first purchased by Silverdale Farm and Shrone Bloodstock for $600,000 at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale out of the Newhaven Park draft, before being offered in Silverdale Farm's draft at Easter.
Bred by Newhaven, the mare is supremely bred, being the fourth foal out of Via Africa (Var), South Africa’s Champion Sprinter of 2013-14 and a three-time elite-level victor, and the dam of another top tier winner in present day Newgate Farm sire In The Congo (Snitzel).
Via Africa has had her problems in the breeding barn, with no foals since Autumn Glow’s birth in 2021. She is now in foal to reigning champion sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
The Autumn Sun - who covered 178 mares at $66,000 at Arrowfield last spring after having 2024 off with injury - sits second on the Australian general sires’ table, behind his late barnmate Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
He has ten stakes winners from 211 runners at 4.73 per cent, but notably five of the ten have won at the elite level.
