28th Group 1 winner for Redoute’s Choice

Peeping’s Coolmore Classic victory at Rosehill on Saturday was a major milestone for everyone involved with the 4YO mare.

She is the 28th Group 1 winner, and first winner of the race for her champion sire Redoute’s Choice, and a new home-bred Group 1 winner for Tom Kelly and his family’s famous Newhaven Park Stud.

Watch Peeping win the ATC Coolmore Classic G1.

Arrowfield’s own home-bred filly Alverta (by Flying Spur) won the race in 2010 and almost four months later franked the form with a sensational third in the Newmarket July Cup G1.

Peeping also gave Sam Clipperton, her jockey throughout her 14-start, six-win career, his first success at the elite level. That was the icing on the cake for her astute and popular trainer Ron Quinton, who has mentored Clipperton for the past seven years.

It was Ron’s third Group 1 win after Easy Rocking (2000 VRC Salinger S. G1) & Bulla Borghese (2002 VRC Oaks G1), and his first Group 1 success in Sydney, where he won eight senior jockey premierships between 1970 and 1984.

Peeping’s success completed a Group race double on the day for Redoute’s Choice, whose 2YO daughter Thyme For Roses took out the VRC TBV Thoroughbred Breeders’ S. G3 at Flemington, becoming his 128th stakeswinner.

The great son of Danehill now has no fewer than 14 Group race doubles and a pair of trebles to his credit, eight of them involving a Group 1 winner.

Peeping’s talent has been evident since her debut win at Hawkesbury in September 2014. Four starts later she won the ATC Darby Munro S. LR and last Spring added the ATC Golden Pendant G2.

Her third behind the outstanding mare Solicit in the ATC Guy Walter S. G2 two weeks ago indicated that she was ready to tackle Group 1 distaff company, with the only doubt being how she might handle 1500 metres for the first time.

“With no trouble at all”, was the answer. Peeping jumped from gate 9 but Clipperton quickly found the perfect slot in clear air behind the early leaders, and timed her run perfectly, to get the better of the ever-gallant Solicit in the final 100 metres, and hold out runner-up Azkadellia, with Lucia Valentina fourth.

Peeping’s 14-start career has garnered almost $900,000 from six wins and five placings, and may now seek a second Group 1 success in the $1 million Queen of the Turf Stakes over 1600 metres on the the second day of The Championships, 9 April.

Peeping is the first foal of the very good dual Group 2-winning mare Miss Marielle (by Encosta de Lago), also a half-sister to Group 2 winner Eurozone.

The Redoute’s Choice/Encosta de Lago cross has produced four other stakeswinners from 27 runners, including Group 1 2YO winner Musir, and Beneteau, whose 19% Stakes Performers/Runners statistic as a sire has enlarged the gap left by his early death.

The catalogue for next month’s Inglis Easter Sale includes two yearlings bred the same way, Newhaven Park’s filly out of stakes-placed winner Fashion, and Element Hill’s colt from Fume Blanc, a three-quarter sister to Group winner One Last Dance.

In all, Redoute’s Choice has 24 Easter Sale yearlings, among them six colts and two fillies in the Arrowfield consignment.