Tassort on top after Manaal flies home
Sires’ Produce Stakes win a huge boost for Newgate Farm’s first-season sire
Young stallion Tassort’s (Brazen Beau) outstanding start to his stud career received Group 1 affirmation when Emirates Park’s exciting homebred Manaal flew home to win a thrilling Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Jumping from the outside gate of nine under Jason Collett, the Michael Freedman-trained filly was the widest runner around the home turn, and worked hard for the length of the straight to ultimately beat Traffic Warden (Street Boss) on the bob, thwarting the Godolphin colt’s bid for the VRC-ATC Sires’ double.
Coleman (Pierata), who’d run second to Traffic Warden’s fourth and Manaal’s fifth in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), produced another strong run to bely his flop as favourite in the Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m), finishing third, 1.1 lengths behind the winner.
And $50 million colt Storm Boy (Justify), with James McDonald content to sit four wide without cover from the 800 metres, loomed up to challenge at the 300 metres but couldn’t produce a finishing burst, disappointing favourite backers.
Having his first run in majority owner Coolmore’s colours, Storm Boy was sent out at $2.05 after Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) had been scratched due to the track, which was upgraded to a Heavy 8 one race before.
While Storm Boy’s third in the Slipper had been meritorious after he was slowly away, Saturday’s run from the expensively-valued Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner will have left connections disappointed, even if he raced roughly in the early stages. His first effort on heavy going – as it was for seven of his eight rivals – may have left connections aiming for 1200-metre events in the spring.
The day belonged to the field’s sole female, with Manaal helping Tassort to the top of the first season sires’ table by winning her third stakes race – one on all three Group tiers. She also provided a second Group 1 win as a solo trainer for Freedman, who watched with Emirates Park’s Hussain Lootah.
“We were both a bit unsure on the line. It’s a huge thrill. These big days are what we all do it for. Hopefully Hussain can find a few more for me,” said Freedman, who felt the pain of running fifth in the Slipper after Manaal had drawn gate 16 and was subjected to inside runs in the straight.
“She’s such a good filly. We went home a little bit dejected after the Slipper, circumstances as they were, but after her work on Tuesday I said to Hussain, ‘I really think it will take a good one to beat her’.
“No disrespect to any of the opposition, for sure, but she’s a really good filly and I’m really excited by what she might be able to do coming back as a three-year-old as well.”
Tassort has traversed a road less taken by sires, but his initial stud progress has him earmarked for the overachiever-of-the-year title.
The former Godolphin runner was restricted to only two starts before injury intervened, winning Rosehill’s prestigious Golden Gift (1100m) by 5.3 lengths, before a second in the Silver Slipper Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m).
Yet the team at Emirates Park saw enough to target him as a stallion prospect, entering into a partnership to stand him at Newgate Farm. And after kicking off at just $11,000, and with his 44 yearlings averaging a modest $42,400 last year, he’s unfurled a remarkable beginning.
His first runner was Manaal in winning Randwick’s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m). His next was Astapor, who won his first two in Queensland – by 4.8 lengths at Rockhampton and three lengths at Doomben. His third was in the west in Onemoretwomany, a gelding who also won his first two, in Perth.
Manaal’s victory on Saturday sent Tassort to first by earnings on the Australian first-season sires’ table, while he sits equal-third by winners, with five from 14 runners. The seven-year-old is now fourth on the two-year-old sires’ standings by earnings, with Manaal his stand-out. This latest victory took her prize-money earnings to almost $1.24 million.
The imposingly built Manaal (2 f Tassort – Red Lodge by Midshipman) is the second foal of the US Listed–winning sprinter Red Lodge (Midshipman). Her year-older half–brother Fightertown (Snitzel) sold to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $1.1 million at the Gold Coast Magic Millions last year, but was recently transferred from the Chris Waller stable after winning one from six.
Emirates now has Manaal’s yearling half-sister by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and a weanling half-sister by Zoustar (Northern Meteor), while Red Lodge is now in-foal to Justify (Scat Daddy).
“She’s a real sweetheart around the stables,” Freedman said of Manaal. “She’s just got the most beautiful temperament and that’s the Tassorts. I’ve got three or four of these and they’ve just got the most brilliant temperaments, which makes our job so much easier.
“I remember she came into work this time last year for her first preparation, so it’s a long haul to get these horses here and it takes the good ones to still be here and fighting in these good Group 1 races.”
Collett said Manaal had “a real attitude and toughness about her, which showed late”.
“She’s tough. I travelled well when the tempo come off but just came under pressure there when they went and just had to give her the time to find it,” he said.
“I was fortunate enough to pick her up in the Slipper and although she didn’t win it, it felt like a win. She had an awful gate [in the Slipper], so we went into today with confidence. Her work on Tuesday was the same as before going into the Slipper. Again she drew wide, but she was able to overcome it.”
Traffic Warden’s rider Jamie Kah said the colt had produced a “super run” and was “improving every time I ride him”, while Damian Lane said Coleman had sprinted well but “his run ended at the 100 metres”.
McDonald said of Storm Boy: “He did a good job. He was trapped deep and he just refused to settle there for a bit.”
Espionage too good for Kindergarten rivals
Million–dollar colt Espionage (Zoustar) brought a welcome change of fortunes for bloodstock giant James Harron by claiming his second Group race in Saturday’s Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
Ridden by Tommy Berry and sent out a warm $2.40 favourite in the six-runner field, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained colt sat just behind the pace one off the fence as Randwick’s showpiece meeting opened on a Heavy 9, and attacked the line once clear at the 200 metres to win going away by 3.1 lengths.
Harron’s colts syndicate has had a rich hand of juvenile males this season, yet the results that looked possible a couple of months ago haven’t quite flowed as hoped.
Espionage was an early Golden Slipper favourite after winning the two-year-old males’ season-opening Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) on September 30, then followed with a fine first-up second in the Silver Slipper Stakes. But after an unlucky fifth in a quality-packed Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), he found himself only an unneeded emergency on Rosehill’s big day, becoming the first Breeders’ Plate winner in five years not to make it into the starting field.
Bodyguard (I Am Invincible), Harron’s most expensive purchase last year at $1.6 million, was two-from-two and among the favourites for the Blue Diamond, when controversially scratched by Racing Victoria vets on the eve of the race. He picked up with a fair fourth in the Todman, but his interrupted campaign finished with a tired 14th in the Slipper.
Aardvark (Capitalist) brought Harron’s syndicate a highly promising lower level stakes win in Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) but then was seventh as second-favourite in the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).
And Fearless (Pierata) tantalised with a sixth in the Blue Diamond to be rated a chance in Saturday’s Sires’, but could manage only a moderate sixth.
Five races earlier, however, Espionage delivered. Considering the class on show in the $1 million Magic Millions buy’s effortless win, and given a smooth comeback by Bodyguard, the chances look strong for two of Harron’s top buys from last year returning to push their stud prospects in spring targets such as Flemington’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Bott said Espionage’s failure to make the Slipper field may have been a blessing in disguise after his stallion prospects were enhanced with his second stakes victory yesterday.
“Things happen for a reason, so he’s been able to bounce back and show his class today,” Bott said.
“That’s an important win for him, obviously being a colt with the stud value there, he’s continued to show that class that he’s got.
“He put the writing on the wall there back at Randwick at his very first career start in the Breeders’ Plate and I think from there we always held him in very high regard.
“We set him on the Slipper path from that point, but we’ve changed at the last minute. Things have worked out for the right reason. You probably needed a fit horse on this testing track and he’s been exactly that, and had the right lead-up for it.
“I think we’ll probably look to put him away now for the spring and focus on a couple of those sharp three-year-old races for him.”
Berry was delighted after his first race ride on Espionage. He had been booked for the Slipper, but instead steered him to a comfortable win in a 1200-metre Randwick trial three days after it.
“We were disappointed not to get a [Slipper] run, but [they] gave him a nice trial in between,” Berry said.
“Gai and Adrian, they know what they’re doing with their horses; a 1200-metre trial back to 1100 and on a track like this it definitely proved to be the winning move today.
“He still got quite lost that last bit, so he still had plenty more in the locker.”
Bred by Gerry Harvey and sold from his Baramul Stud draft at the Gold Coast last year, Espionage (2 c Zoustar – In Times of War by Street Cry) is the third runner from city-winning mare In Times Of War (Street Cry), herself a daughter of Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Military Rose (General Nediym).
His half-brother Conscience (Snitzel) outstripped Espionage’s sale price when Harron backed up at the Gold Coast this year to buy him for $1.4 million in conjunction with Tony Fung and Peter Moody.
In Times Of War now has a weanling brother to Espionage, and was covered by Zoustar again last November.
Espionage’s win on Saturday was an 18th stakes win of the Australian season for Widden Stud flagbearer Zoustar, who sits third on the general sires’ table by earnings, but equal-first by stakes-winners (14), and is a runaway leader by winners following the day’s racing with 169 to second-placed I Am Invincible’s 137.
The Kindergarten Stakes brought black type for second-placed colt Roselyn’s Star (Shalaa) at his third start, and for third-placed Hallett (Deep Field) in his second.