Arrowfield’s super Saturday at Rosehill
Sensational filly Lady Shenandoah powers up in the Coolmore Classic G1 to stave off the challenge of Firestorm & a brave Lady Of Camelot and claim her third Group 1 victory this season. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
Three Arrowfield graduates, magnificent 3YO filly Lady Shenandoah, her stablemate Lazzura and 2YO colt Skyhook, opened the 2025 Sydney Autumn Carnival with a brilliant sequence of Group 1, 2 & 3 victories at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
They take Arrowfield’s graduate tally of Group wins this season to 22, including 5 at Group 1 level. They have been compiled by 16 horses, all but two of them sold as yearlings.
Lady Shenandoah (Snitzel-Star Pupil by Starcraft) secured her third Group 1 victory, and first against older mares in the $1 million ATC Coolmore Classic 1500m G1, with a display of the flawless class and courage she has shown in both her Spring & Autumn campaigns.
Her record now reads 5 wins, all at Group level, and $1.8 million prizemoney from 7 starts. Along with her significantly increased value, that’s a handsome return on the $525,000 Hermitage Thoroughbreds paid for her at Inglis Easter 2023, where she was sold by Arrowfield.
Lady Shenandoah’s half-brother by Maurice will be offered in the Stud’s Inglis Easter 2025 draft as Lot 187, and Star Pupil is once again safely in foal to Snitzel.
She’s a special filly! 🌟
That’s five in a row for Lady Shenandoah as she wins the G1 Coolmore Classic! 👌@mcacajamez 🤝 @cwallerracing pic.twitter.com/l0F6VXESKO
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 15, 2025
Trainer Chris Waller, celebrating his third consecutive Coolmore Classic success, said, “The good fillies that we have had just kept getting better and better and better. She’s already there. So our job is to try and get her to that next level again — repeat success at Group One level.
“It’s not going to be easy for her and some of those great horses that we have had have been later maturers, so I don’t like to compare — but Winx wasn’t doing this at this age.”
Jockey James McDonald, who gave Lady Shenandoah a perfect ride from gate 11, said, “She began well and fitted in and showed her quality fighting spirit. I think that she is a fast filly and as she gets older and starts filling out into her frame I think that she will come back in trip and be even faster.”
Lazzura (Snitzel-Laguna Azzura by Heart’s Cry), who won the Woodlands S. LR at two, has competed with admirable tenacity against all the best 3YO fillies, including third placings in Manaal’s Furious S. G2 and Lady Shenandoah’s Surround S. G1.
Her consistency was rewarded on Saturday with a sparkling victory in the $300,000 Phar Lap S. 1500m G2, where her high-octane sprint produced a sub-33 second final 600 metres and a 1.7-length winning margin, with Wonder Boy & stablemate Declichy Boulevard (by Snitzel) filling the placings.
It is the 8th Phar Lap Stakes win for Chris Waller who said, “She’s done a good job, showed great acceleration and backed up some good form from the last two runs behind some top fillies.” He added that the Queen of the Turf S. G1 over 1600m at Randwick on 12 April now beckons as an attractive option for the filly.
Lazzura, from the family of Japan’s 2024 Champion Sire Kizuna, and bred by the Arrowfield-Northern Farm joint venture, was a $500,000 purchase by Ricky Surace’s B2B Thoroughbreds from Arrowfield’s Magic Millions 2023 consignment. Laguna Azzura foaled a full sister to her last Spring and is in foal to Farnan.
Champion Sire Snitzel has now posted 14 winners of 23 Group & Listed Races this season, 5 of them Group 1 successes by Lady Shenandoah, Switzerland & New Zealand-based 2YO colt Return To Conquer.
Skyhook (Written Tycoon-Madame Pauline by Redoute’s Choice) and jockey Kerrin McEvoy made the winning of the $250,000 Pago Pago S. 1200m G3 look easy by going straight to the front and sprinting clear 300 metres out to score by 3.2 lengths from Good Hotspur & State Visit (also out of a Redoute’s Choice mare).
Co-trainer Sterling Alexiou said, “He is really bombproof. Kerrin made his intentions very clear early. He thought he was riding the best horse and rode him accordingly. It was good to see him put a space on the field.”
It was the third start for the chestnut colt, after placings in the Pierro Plate and the Skyline S. G2 and, provided he recovers well after a very hot raceday, he will take his place in next Saturday’s $5 million Golden Slipper G1. The last 2YO to complete the Pago Pago-Golden Slipper double was Snitzel’s son Shinzo in 2023.
A $575,000 purchase by Ryan & Alexiou Racing from Arrowfield at Magic Millions, Skyhook is raced by the stable with a large group of owners including Legacy Thoroughbreds, co-founded & managed by Arrowfield’s Yearling Manager Dean Macaskill, who is “absolutely over the moon”, celebrating not only his first stakeswinner & Slipper contender, but also his first-ever city winner.
Dean recalls, “I always liked him as a yearling—he was a relaxed colt who did everything well. He wasn’t necessarily an over-achiever or a standout, but he was a quality individual.
“When I first spoke with Sterling and Gerald, they mentioned he had plenty of ability, but was still putting things together, so a Slipper campaign wasn’t really on the radar. It wasn’t until his first jump-out and trial that we started to think we might have something special.
“Beyond just liking him as a yearling, a big part of the decision to buy in was Arrowfield’s incredible track record. The stud’s success with Written Tycoon and producing top horses out of Redoute’s Choice mares, with strong stallion pedigrees, meant the stats were in my favour.”
Skyhook’s dam Madame Pauline, a speedy three-quarter sister to Group winner & young sire Anders, was trained by Paul Messara – like the dams of Group 1 winners Lady Shenandoah, Super Seth, Kenedna & Contentment.
