Foxplay’s Strong Finish To Win The Tea Rose Stakes
When clear, though, Foxplay sprouted wings under Hugh Bowman to grab the leaders in the final strides, defeating Skylight Glow (Northern Meteor) by a neck with Quick Feet (Northern Meteor) another half-head away in third place. The time for the race was 1:23.99, the final 600 metres covered in 35.28 on a track rated as Good 4.
Foxplay was coming off a last start, first up victory in the Furious Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on a heavy track at Randwick on 3 September, so is at home on any going.
The first crop daughter of Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) is now expected to try to add to her scorecard the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick on 1 October to complete the Sydney spring Triple Crown for fillies.
Since 1999 five other fillies, Danglissa (Danzero), Shamekha (Secret Savings), Mnemosyne (Encosta De Lago), Samantha Miss (Redoute’s Choice) and Streama (Stratum) have captured the Furious Stakes/Tea Rose Stakes double with Danglissa, Samantha Miss and Streama going on to complete the treble in the longer Flight Stakes.
If Foxplay can also add her name to this list it will be a special achievement for syndicator Denise Martin of Star Thoroughbreds who purchased the filly for her group of owners and who also syndicated Danglissa, raced in the same purple and white colours as Foxplay.
Foxplay is the best of three stakes winners to date for her young sire Foxwedge, the foundation stallion for Newgate Farm when first established at Scone, NSW, in 2012.
A talented two-year-old when trained in Sydney by John O’Shea, Foxwedge gave a hint of his ultimate racing class when third to Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) and Sepoy (Elusive Quality) in the 2011 Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) before blossoming into a top grade sprinter at three years, becoming a Group One winner in the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Moonee Valley, downing Hay List (Statue Of Liberty) and Buffering (Mossman).
Other feature wins for him came in the Roman Consul Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) but placings in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (registered as: Ascot Vale Stakes) (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) against older horses are further testimony to his racing ability.
Exceptionally handsome and correct, Foxwedge has another first crop stakes winner in Australia this season, Kentucky Miss, plus another, the filly Volpe Veloce, in New Zealand.
He also shuttled to Whitsbury Manor Stud in Britain and so far has 15 individual winners in the Northern Hemisphere, among them three stakes placegetters. Some 12 of his total of 26 winners in both hemispheres are male and Foxwedge is currently the leading second season sire by earnings in Australia this season. He is also currently second to Smart Missile by number of winners.
Bred by S F Bloodstock LLC, Foxplay cost $160,000 when purchased at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Star Thoroughbreds from the draft of Newgate Farm and is the third foal of her imported dam Butters (El Prado), a Listed sprint winner whose earlier foals are Exciting Prospect (Distorted Humor), who raced successfully in Singapore, and Butterboom (Myboycharlie), a filly who has proved a useful sprinter in Sydney.
To follow Foxplay, Butters has another Foxwedge filly, now a two-year-old, and this year she produced a colt by Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux).
Butters is a daughter of the grey El Prado (Sadler’s Wells), a Group One winner and champion two-year-old in Ireland who failed to train on at three years before being sold to stand at stud in the United States where he defied the odds to twice become champion sire, leaving three very accomplished Group One-winning sire sons in Kitten’s Joy, Australian shuttlers Medaglia d’Oro and Artie Schiller as well as Borrego and Paddy O’Prado, both successful stallions in the United States.
While Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) was renowned as a source of classic stamina, El Prado passed on a lot of his own speed as a son of the 1977 Irish 1000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) winner Lady Capulet (Sir Ivor), also runner up in the Coronation Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at Royal Ascot.
Foxplay is one of 50 stakes winners, six at Group One level, produced by daughters of El Prado. As you will see from the accompanying catalogue-style pedigree, she comes from a family rich in stakes performers with her third dam Eliza (Mt Livermore), a dual Grade One winner, ranked as the best juvenile filly in the United States in 1992.
The construction of Foxplay’s well-balanced pedigree is an interesting one with five lines of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) a dominant feature. Her sire Foxwedge is linebred to the speedy, tough and influential mare Crimson Saint (Crimson Satan) whose sire is also present in the background of Butters.