‘He’s doing the business all round’ – Magics-bound Femminile scores Dundeel a first female Group 1 winner in SA Derby
It’s taken a good deal of patience in more than one respect, but Dundeel (High Chaparral) finally has a female Group 1 winner to add to his collection after Femminile’s stirring triumph in Saturday’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
The Group 1 win added further allure to Femminile’s CV before she goes under the hammer at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale later this month. Catalogued as Lot 561, the filly is being offered as Racing and Breeding Proposition by Newgate Farm.
Dundeel – Arrowfield’s outstanding 15-year-old who’ll stand at an unchanged $88,000 (inc GST) this spring – has scored goals in several directions in a stud career looking every bit as glorious as the racing story that netted him six Group 1s.
Before Saturday, he had eight top-tier winners including current day burgeoning sires in Arrowfield barnmate Castelvecchio and Waikato Stud’s Super Seth.
Dundeel sealed his first top ten finishes on Australia’s general sires’ standings in the past two seasons, ranking sixth and seventh, while he’s also making early waves as a broodmare sire, with three stakes winners from 27 runners, at 11 percent, amid 13 winners.
While his sons have statistically outperformed his daughters for most of his stud career, that picture has been changing – along with the perception that his often flighty fillies require more patience than his robust colts, perhaps as breeders better define the types of mares that suit him.
Of Dundeel’s eight Australasian stakes winners this season before Saturday, five had been female, in Konasana and Cinch, with two each, plus Mare of Mt Buller, Deel Her In and Jasmin Rouge.
Now he has six from nine and his first elite heroine after Phillip Stokes’s Femminile became the second successive filly to win the SA Derby – after Coco Sun, a daughter of another Arrowfield sire in The Autumn Sun, scored in last year’s race.
Ridden by Lachie Neindorf and bearing OTI’s colours, Femminile scored a corner-cutting victory which was a win for the bookmakers, starting at $19 after an only fair seventh in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) a week earlier.
Jumping from gate two, she was allowed to settle at the back by Neindorf, but came on powerfully on the fence from the 600m to improve to the leaders’ heels before the home turn.
Neindorf boldly shot her to the front as soon as heads were turned for home, past VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Goldrush Guru (American Pharoah), and she led by two lengths at the 150m.
The grey Statuario (D’Argento) emerged down the outside of the ruck with a powerful finish, the $3.40 favourite appearing likely for a moment to reel the filly in. But Femminile dug deep, showing staying power likely to be on display again amidst bigger targets in the spring, to win by 0.73 lengths.
Godolphin gelding Lavalier (Microphone) took third almost two lengths further back as a $6.50 third-favourite, while VRC St Leger (Listed, 2800m) victor American Wolf (Tivaci) disappointed in eighth at $6.
Arrowfield owner John Messara has long blown the trumpet of Dundeel’s daughters.
Some had come close to bearing the stallion elite laurels, with Hope In Your Heart, Aquacade and She’s Ideal placed at the top level – She’s Ideel three times.
None had broken through until Saturday at Morphettville, but while Messara was delighted, for him it was more of an inevitability than a monkey off the back.
“He can get as good a filly as he can get a colt,” Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“There’s been some very very good fillies by him, he’s had plenty of filly stakes winners, but also there’s been some sad stories about some of them breaking down or just getting beaten.
“This might be a monkey off some people’s backs, but it was never on our backs. I’ve kept arguing it out with people, because I’ve had a few good fillies of his.”
Overall, the future is looking only more rosy for Dundeel.
With his first elite winner having come more than six years ago – on a less direct route with Atyaab taking South Africa’s Cape Derby (Gr 1, 2000m) in January 2019 – it might be easy to forget Dundeel is still only 15.
Furthermore, Messara says the quality of his stock will continue to rise.
“He’s now got a Group 1 winning filly, he’s got two sons at stud who are successful, and nine Group 1 winners,” he said. “There’s not many stallions who get that, and he’s only rising 16.
“And his best years are ahead of him because these are all his good books of mares coming through now.
“He’s starting to look like a pretty good sire of broodmares as well. We’ve had some very nice types out of Dundeel mares at home.
“He’s doing the business all round. It’s really good to see.”
With Dundeel now boasting 11 female stakes winners to 25 male, Messara said this season could mark a fundamental change in the perception of Dundeel, whose yearlings have averaged $213,000 this year, up from $185,000 in 2024.
“He’s had a preponderance of filly stakes winners this season – more of them than colts,” he said.
“It’s just been about patience. His fillies do have more of a staying nature, as we’ve found, but they’re just as good as the colts.”
Phillip Stokes was at Caulfield on Saturday, the Melbourne-based South Australian missing out on being trackside for his success in his home state’s oldest major, his eighth Group 1 overall.
Son and foreman Tommy was on hand to cheer in Femminile, who scored her second win from ten starts following victory at the same course on a heavy 9 in the Oaklands Plate (Listed, 1400m) last June.
“She’s just been prepped up to a tee, and the back-up really suited, stepping up in trip,” he said.
“We were doing a bit of a rain dance before today, but she didn’t need it. Lachie gave her an absolute peach.
“It was quite an effortless watch in the end. I’m just very proud, especially as another winner for OTI being a Group 1.
“Full credit to the team at Pakenham and Morphettville. It’s a big operation now. The team puts in a lot of work, Mum and Dad.”
Bred by Aralet PL of Queensland, Femminile was a $150,000 purchase for Stokes and Rick Connolly Bloodstock at Inglis Easter 2023, from Vinery Stud’s draft.
She’s the first of four foals, and the only one to race, from Femme Fireball (Pierro), who won seven of 23 for Rob Heathcote, and was Listed placed, and is a sister to dual Group 3 winner Rock.
Femme Fireball’s third foal, a filly by Pinatubo (Shamardal), was bought at the Gold Coast this year by Laurel Oak Bloodstock from Vinery’s draft for $250,000.
Echoing the High Chaparral line seen through Dundeel in Femminile, the ten-year-old Femme Fireball now has a weanling filly by So You Think (High Chaparral). She was covered by Darley’s second-season sire Anamoe (Street Boss) last spring.
Femminile is one of seven stakes winners for Pierro (Lonhro) as a broodmare sire, from 128 runners.