First Group win for Wild Rain
Manhattan Rain’s smart daughter Wild Rain has obviously benefited from the good break Mark Kavanagh elected to give her after her five-start summer campaign. She resumed at Caulfield on Saturday to win the $150,000 MRC Sir John Monash S. 1100m G3 and did it without turning a hair.
Wild Rain jumped well from barrier 10 but was still left wide as Lord Of The Sky sped forward and the field began to sort out. Damien Oliver, back on board Wild Rain for the first time since he won on her at Morphettville in May 2015, elected to press on and settle her just behind Lord Of The Sky.
There she stayed until the top of the straight when she unwound the sprint that took her past the stubborn Lord Of The Sky 150 metres from home. Trevinder and Atmospherical came through late to nab the placings, but they didn’t threaten Wild Rain whose winning margin was 1.75 lengths.
Watch Wild Rain win the MRC Sir John Monash S. G3.
The race was an easy watch for part-owner and stable representative Levi Kavanagh. He said, “We’ll space her runs this prep and keep her to the minimum distances. She’ll keep to these sort of races and definitely we will head towards the Magic Millions again.” Wild Rain was a valiant second in this year’s $1 million Magic Millions Sprint.
Her ability and professionalism is evident in her record of seven wins (three black type), five placings and $630,067 prizemoney from 18 starts for her owners Isobel & Levi Kavanagh, Brett Griffith & Tim Storey of Collins St Partners, Wade McKibben, Anna Stenswick’s DTTM Syndicate, Stan & Anna Hunt and Gary & Rhonda Ma.
A $150,000 buy from the Arrowfield draft at the 2013 Magic Millions Sale, Wild Rain was bred by the Stud’s long-standing partnership with John Leaver’s Planette Thoroughbred, also responsible for Miss Finland’s Group 1-winning daughter Stay With Me, Champion 2YO Filly Fashions Afield and Singapore Horse of the Year Stepitup among many others.
Wild Rain is the sixth foal of juvenile winner North Flower (by Rory’s Jester) who has proven a valuable addition to Arrowfield/Planette broodmare band.
Stud Manager Paul Messara says, “North Flower is a good type of mare, she’s a half-sister to the dam of Northerly and she’s done a good job for Arrowfield and John Leaver since we bought her seven years ago.
“We’re now working with Wild Rain’s half-sister by Animal Kingdom – she’s probably the most forward of our rising two-year-olds, so I’m hopeful she’ll progress to the early trials.”
A trio of recent juvenile winners (Tango Rain in Sydney, Inspired Estelle in Melbourne & Manhattan Street in New Zealand) also promise to give Manhattan Rain a strong start to the 2016/17 season, and build on his three-crop record of six stakeswinners and ten other stakes performers from 135 runners.
