Milan Park’s Rider hoping ‘magic cross’ can deliver 1,000 Guineas glory for The Perfect Pink
Long-range Oaks plans for Richards-trained Savabeel filly but Riccarton goal comes first
A failed attempt to buy high-class racemare The Solitaire (O’Reilly) by Tony Rider several years ago has led to the Milan Park principal, and those who rejected his handsome offer, sharing in the ownership of leading New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) contender The Perfect Pink (Savabeel).
The Dennis family bred and owned the mare Rider wanted, The Solitaire, and he possessed the coveted nomination to champion stallion Savabeel (Zabeel) that the Southland brothers of Tony, Ray, Joe and Martin craved for their three-time stakes winner who was good enough to salute on ten occasions.
The mating achieved the “magic cross” of Savabeel and O’Reilly (Last Tycoon), which is responsible for 21 stakes winners, including six at Group 1 level at a stakes winner to runner ratio of 13 per cent.
Rider believes the Jamie Richards-trained filly is a big chance of The Perfect Pink becoming the seventh Group 1 winner for the cross in tomorrow’s 1,000 Guineas at Riccarton.
The lightly raced three-year-old, who did not see a sales ring and was instead retained to race by her breeders, closed strongly to win her maiden over 1300 metres on the Cambridge Synthetic track.
Last start, she got a long way back in the Soliloquy Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) at Matamata before charging home to run fourth. The race was won by stablemate and Guineas favourite Imperatriz (I Am Invincible).
“She will be hard to beat, but she hasn’t got the best draw either (14), so that’s the downfall,” Rider told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“I think Riccarton will really suit her because it has a long straight and that will give her time to wind up. One could be a bit bullish and say, ‘hey, she’ll be there’ and hopefully she will be right there in the first three and finding the line.”
Importantly, Opie Bosson will ride the filly in the Guineas, replacing Ashvin Goindasamy who rode her in the Soliloquy Stakes.
“He is a plus. Very much so,” says Rider.
The Dennis brothers-Rider partnership already have their sights set on achieving glory in Australia in the autumn with The Perfect Pink.
“We might run her in the Oaks here in New Zealand and then head off to Adelaide (for the Australasian Oaks) or the Australian Oaks in Sydney,” Rider said.
“We’ve definitely got that in mind. She is very striking. She has the looks and is a lovely filly. She would have made a reasonable amount of money as a yearling, I would say, but you can breed them cheaper than what you can buy them for at the sales.”
So, where did the decision to breed The Perfect Pink start?
“Actually, how it came about was I tried to buy the mare off them. That is how it all started. They said no and then they came back to me and said, ‘do you want to breed her with us?’, so I put up the nom, they put up the mare and we’ve gone 50-50,” Rider said.
“They have also got another mare called The Diamond One and we sold a yearling colt at the Sydney Easter sale this year out of her by Savabeel who made $580,000. Stephen Marsh bought him.
“We have got a filly (yearling, by Savabeel) out of The Diamond One this year, too, which we will race in partnership.”
The Diamond One (Tale Of The Cat), a multiple Group 3 winner and daughter of 1,000 Guineas winner The Jewel (O’Reilly) and from the same family as The Solitaire and The Perfect Pink, is also a half-sister to The Glitzy One (Flying Spur), herself the dam of the Dennis and Rider-raced The Chosen One (Savabeel).
The Chosen One, a six-year-old entire, ran fifth in the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) for trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.
As for The Solitaire, she has a yearling filly by Per Incanto (Street Cry), owned solely by the Dennis’s, and is due to foal to Ocean Park (Thorn Park) imminently.
Next year, though, you can be sure that Rider will be joining forces again with the brothers to breed a sibling to The Perfect Pink.