First stakeswinner for Beneteau
Handsome 2YO colt Prompt Return made the step up to Group company at Flemington with ease to claim Saturday’s $150,000 VRC Maribyrnong Plate 1000m G3, and become the first stakeswinner for his sire Beneteau. In turn, Beneteau is the 14th stakes-siring son of Redoute’s Choice.
Prompt Return jumped smartly from barrier 4 and was quickly directed by jockey James Winks to the inside rail where he soon took control not only of the group on the flat, but also the larger group on the stand side.
Prompt Return extended beautifully to stretch his lead and score by two lengths from Old Trieste. Sailing By and Jaqueric (also by Beneteau) both finished strongly from well off the pace to fill the third and fourth spots.
Trainer Danny O’Brien said, “He’s a very nice colt. He went to Bendigo and it was really a barrier trial, he won and he came home and improved on it and you saw the improvement today.
“He’s been very dominant today in what has been historically a very good formguide for the two-year-old season.”
Prompt Return was bred by Ron Hamer and sold from the Newgate Farm draft for $60,000 to Blue Sky Bloodstock at the 2014 Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale. Hamer, who retained a share in Prompt Return to race him with Mark Sowerby, also has a yearling full sister to the colt.
The colt’s dam Prompt is a daughter of Exceed and Excel and the good New Zealand racemare Amnesia whose race record includes nine Group & Listed Race placings and a fourth in Pace Invader’s 1998 CJC NZ 1000 Guineas G1. Prompt Return is the second of his dam’s two runners to win, after Caulfield juvenile winner Diamond Glow, also second to Miracles Of Life in the 2013 MRC Blue Diamond Preview LR.
Options for Prompt Return include the Magic Millions 2YO Classic in January and the Blue Diamond S. G1 n February.
Beneteau (Redoute’s Choice-Slice of Paradise by Encosta de Lago) was sold by Arrowfield for $1 million to Blue Sky at the 2009 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and, in the hands of trainer Paul Messara, quickly proved to be one of Australia’s most exciting juveniles.
After a debut win in the Blue Sky colours at Randwick in January 2010, he travelled to Melbourne to claim the MRC Blue Diamond Prelude G3 before finishing an unlucky third in the MRC Blue Diamond S. G1 and fifth in Crystal Lily’s Golden Slipper.
Beneteau joined the Arrowfield roster in 2011 and served 179 mares during two seasons at stud before his death in January 2013.
The second and final crop of yearlings by the much-missed son of Redoute’s Choice will be offered in 2015.
