Tofane and Shout The Bar all set for their swansong runs in All Aged Stakes
Nimalee scratched from Randwick’s Group 1 contest following her Queen Of The Turf win
As racing prepares to farewell Tofane (Ocean Park) and Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt) in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick today, two other star mares appear likely to continue at least into the spring.
Tofane, a four-time Group 1 winner, all over 1400 metres and including the All Aged Stakes in 2020, will head to the breeding barn after today, with the six-year-old sure to be among the top lots at next month’s Magic Millions National Broodmare sale on the Gold Coast.
Five-year-old Shout The Bar, a dual elite-level winner who landed Moonee Valley’s Sunline Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) at her latest start last month, is being offered at next month’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale as a breeding and racing prospect, but it’s widely expected today will be her last start.
All Aged rival Sierra Sue (Darci Brahma), however, appears certain to race on, with co-trainer Natalie Young yesterday saying the five-year-old dual Group 1 winner could be headed to Brisbane and June’s Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m), over the same distance as her two previous Group 1 successes.
And trainer Matthew Smith is eyeing another shot at Flemington’s Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) in the spring for Nimalee (So You Think). Smith last night said that five-year-old would be scratched from the All Aged, having broken through for her first elite-level victory last Saturday in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Young said she and co-trainer Trent Busuttin would discuss Sierra Sue’s future with owners including Ozzie Khier and John O’Neill after today’s $600,000 race, with Sierra Sue in “top shape” and set to start unless Randwick is hit by any unforecast deluge before the event.
“On one hand, she’s done her job. She’s won two Group 1s, and you can’t get better than that,” Young told ANZ Bloodstock News. “There’s no point carrying on racing her on and busting her. But we’ll have a little bit of a think and see how tomorrow pans out.
“She’s definitely sound enough to have another spring campaign. But she’ll be up in the weights now. If she tries to win the Rupert Clarke Stakes again, which she won last year with 52.5 kilograms, she’ll probably have an extra four kilos this time. So we’ve got to weigh up what’s really available in the spring for her that makes it worth her going another year before going to the breeding barn.
“We’ll have a chat to Ozzie and the other owners after the All Aged, but she is sound. She’s only had 23 starts, we’ve always given her a good break when she’s needed it. I’d like to carry on into the spring again, or even to Brisbane maybe if she goes well, give her a let-up and tackle the Stradbroke perhaps.”
Young said Sierra Sue – arguably the most under-rated dual Group 1 winner in many years and at her usual odds of around $12 last night – was bristling and ready for the All Aged, her first run since finding the All–Star Mile (1600m) slightly too long at Flemington on March 19, when finishing seventh behind Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux).
“I think 1400 (metres) is really her go. There’s a more genuine tempo, she can sit and relax and get in her rhythm and storm over the top of them,” Young said last night. “She ran that way when she won the Futurity Stakes (two runs back), and beat Mo’unga into second. He’s about $4 tomorrow and Sierra Sue’s about $12 or $13.
“She’s her usual price, right? She’s won two Group 1s, she keeps getting up at $11 or $12 which is fine by me, since we always have a little flutter.
“She looks great, travelled up fine and arrived on Friday morning. She’s dappled all over – over her stomach, all over her back. We wouldn’t want a Heavy 10 – but she gets through the soft alright. If the track comes back a bit she’s a good each-way chance.”
Passed in from the Ardsley Stud draft at Karaka Book 2 in 2018 at a reserve of $30,000, Sierra Sue has now won nine times for $1.73 million in earnings and has won two Group 2s – also over 1400 metres – to complement her brace at the top tier.
Smith told ANZ last night he intended to scratch Nimalee on race morning. While the All Aged had appeared a logical step following last Saturday’s stirring two and a quarter length victory over 1600 metres, Smith said the fact she’d had a tough run on a Heavy 10 in that event had helped convince he and owners Lester and Margaret Durney to preserve the mare for the spring.
A $270,000 purchase through Randwick Bloodstock at the 2018 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, the Cressfield-bred Nimalee ran a strong fourth – beaten a length and a quarter – in the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington on Derby Day, won by another retiring mare in Goldolphin’s Colette (Hallowed Crown).
“That’ll be the race for her again,” Smith said. “She’ll race on for the spring campaign. Beyond that, I don’t know, but at this stage, she’ll race on.
“She ran super to win last Saturday. She came through it in good order and has done well this week, but we’ve decided to scratch her (from the All Aged). She had a hard run last week, she drew a bad barrier for the All Aged, and we don’t need to run her really. We’ve got the Group 1 under the belt.”
The Mike Moroney-trained Tofane – whose half-brother from the Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Baggy Green, Benaud (Reliable Man), ran a superb second to Hitotsu (Maurice) in the ATC Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) on April 2 – heads into her swansong today as a regal broodmare prospect, winner of eight of her 29 starts and $3.57 million in prize-money.
Bookmakers had her around the $12 mark for the All Aged, with the Michael Feedman-trained mare Forbidden Love (All Too Hard) and her fellow four-year-old, Annabel Neasham’s stallion Mo’unga (Savabeel), vying for favouritism at around $5.
Mo’unga, who runs for his new ownership group today after being purchased as a stallion prospect by Newhaven Park Stud this week, has not started since splitting Sierra Sue and Tofane in the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield on February 26.
Shout The Bar, a $200,000 Gold Coast Yearling Sale buy from the Newhaven draft by trainers Waterhouse and Bott in 2018, was around the $23 mark despite her four-length win in the Sunline last start. The mare has won five of 17 starts and $1.34 million for a syndicate headed by Francis Cook’s Mystery Downs, but has had only two unplaced runs in heavy going, although she’s won three from six in soft.
Meanwhile, Smith will start his rare Hungarian import Esti Feny (Pigeon Catcher) – a Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) hopeful – in Caulfield’s Easter Cup (Gr 3, 2000m) today after scratching the seven-year-old from Randwick’s JRA Plate (Gr 3, 2000m) owing to Sydney’s wet tracks.
The Warwick Farm-based trainer imported the gelding – bred from Irish parents in Pigeon Catcher (Dutch Art) and Ejtihaad (Nayef) – in 2019, but he’s been limited by injuries to just two races: a seventh in the Canberra Mile in February 2020, then a first-up ninth earlier this month in Bendigo’s Golden Mile (Listed, 1600m).
Esti Feny performed well in his home country early on, with victories in two Hungarian Group 1s over 2400 metres in 2018.
Smith explained the unusual – for Australia – purchase of a galloper from Hungary came after a failed attempt to land a German stayer, Colomano (Cacique), who then beat Esti Feny in a Listed race over 2200 metres at Cologne in May, 2019.
“We do a lot of European form, and I was trying to buy Colomano, but we couldn’t settle on a price,” Smith said. “After the deal fell over, all of a sudden this horse Esti Feny nearly beat Colomano. And I said, ‘Well, if we can’t get Colomano we’ll get this other one’.
“Unfortunately he’s had a lot of injuries since he came out here, but he’s finally going well and I think he’ll win a good race if he holds up for a preparation.
“We’ve got the Melbourne Cup in mind. He looks like he’d run two miles. If I can get him through to the Brisbane Cup this campaign that’ll give us an idea. We don’t know for sure, but he looks and works like a really good horse. I really like the fact he won over 1400 metres and 2800 metres. Not many horses can do that no matter where you’re running.”