Flemington Group double for Redoute’s Choice
A pair of 3YOs, including his 98th lifetime stakeswinner, gave Redoute’s Choice a Group 3 double at Flemington today.
They have plenty in common apart from their champion sire. Both were sold at the 2011 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, both feature Sadler’s Wells on the distaff side of their pedigrees, both are heading towards Group One classics and their winning times were almost exactly the same.
Pictured: Sheer Talent becomes the 98th stakeswinner – and 12th worldwide this season – for Redoute’s Choice in today’s VRC C.S. Hayes S. G3. (PHOTO: Sportpix)
The marginally faster time of 1.22.59 was recorded by the filly Alzora who claimed the $150,000 VRC Vanity S. 1400m G3 for her owners Rob & Yvonne Crabtree. It was Alzora’s second win following her Listed Race success at Caulfield last spring, and her first start since running fifth in Dear Demi’s VRC Oaks G1 on 8 November.
It was a nicely timed success for Alzora’s trainer David Hayes, marking what would have been the 89th birthday of his famous father Colin. He said, ?It is a juggling act with a stayer in a sprint. We had her fresh and maybe too fresh.””
?I thought her run might have ended at the 50 metres but to her credit she was tough and hung in there and picked up a bit more valuable black type.
?She has always worked really well, it took her a long time to break maiden status but she did it in a stakes race. I am hoping she can develop into an Australasian Oaks filly.?
Alzora was purchased from her breeder Emirates Park for $115,000 by Mark Pilkington at the 2011 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale. Her dam Bruce Canyon (by Gulch), is out of of the Yorkshire Oaks runner-up Bineyah, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells from the family of Seattle Slew and Lomond.
One race later the Redoute’s Choice colt Sheer Talent put himself on the Australian Guineas radar with victory in the $150,000 VRC C.S. Hayes S. 1400m G3.
Trainer Mark Kavanagh said, “”I’ve just kept a close watch on him, I’ve never done too much with him. The moment he looks like he’s had enough, I’ll put him away and that’s how I’ve trained him.
“”And if you look at him closely, there’s a little bit more improvement to come, in fact, he just keeps improving every time he goes out.””
Bred and co-owned by Gerry Harvey, Sheer Talent was a $350,000 yearling purchase from St Katherine, by Sadler’s Wells’ son Barathea and descended from Great Klaire, a half-sister to the champion broodmare Eight Carat.
St Katherine has done a fine job at stud too: her three runners to date also include Group 3 winners Kittens (by Redoute’s Choice) and Saint Encosta (by Encosta de Lago). Yet to race is Limehouse, a 2YO sister to Kittens and Sheer Talent, in training with Patrick Webster at Randwick.
That wasn’t the end of Redoute’s Choice’s impact on Lightning Stakes day at Flemington. His 4YO son Niconoise, a stablemate of Alzora, scored his fourth win in the last race on the card, the 1700-metre VRC Swisse Wellness Trophy.
Niconoise is a three-quarter brother of multiple Group 1 winner Niconero, and half-brother of Nicconi, whose two Group 1 successes included the the 2010 Lightning Stakes. Their dam is yet another outstanding broodmare, Nicola Lass, by another son of Sadler’s Wells, this time Scenic.
That wasn’t quite the end of the day’s Redoute’s Choice/Sadler’s Wells theme. The Hayes stable also prepares 2YO colt Great Esteem who ran a good fifth on debut in the 1100-metre VRC Talindert S. LR. His dam Park Esteem, a close relative of Group 1 winners Central Park and Moon Ballad, is by Sadler’s Wells’ grandson Singspiel. As the stable tweeted after the race, Great Esteem “”got home well when the race was over. Looking for further.””
Redoute’s Choice has just begun serving his 2013 northern hemisphere book at HH The Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval in France.
