Graduate stakes quinella ends stunning Cup Week

Arrowfield graduates Bend The Knee and Port Louis signed off on the Stud’s spectacular 2021 Cup Week at Flemington with a thrilling quinella in the $175,000 The Amanda Elliott 1400m LR on Stakes Day.

Jockey Kerrin McEvoy said, “I was a little bit lucky that my horse quickened from an unfavourable spot…He was able to quicken through and got out into a good spot where we needed to be, up the middle. He is a nice young horse that has progressed nicely.”

Bend The Knee is the fourth stakeswinner this Spring from Arrowfield’s 2020 Magic Millions draft, after Profondo (Spring Champion S. G1), Hitotsu (last Saturday’s Victoria Derby G1) & Flying Evelyn (Thursday’s Red Roses S. G3). 

Add the privately sold Yearning (Thousand Guineas G1), Group 3 winner Mallory and Listed winner Royalzel and Arrowfield’s Class of 2020 has already produced 7 stakeswinners. 
 
From the same group, Port Louis, Remarque and Invinsible Tears (who won at the Gold Coast on Saturday) have all been Group-placed. 

Bend the Knee storms home to win The Amanda Elliott! #StakesDay #CupWeekOn10 pic.twitter.com/EZMPFO7CdH

— 10 Sport (@10SportAU) November 6, 2021

Bred by the long-standing partnership of Northern Farm & Arrowfield, Bend The Knee is the best of three winners produced by dual stakeswinner Kneeling (by Encosta de Lago), herself a half-sister to two stakeswinners and the dam of Australian Derby winner Ace High. 

Bend The Knee’s grand-dam Sunday Service (by Sunday Silence) and her stakes-winning half-sister Express Power (by Snitzel) were both Arrowfield-bred, and Kneeling has been based at the Stud since her purchase by Katsumi Yoshida in 2015. 

A $300,000 purchase by his trainer John O’Shea, Bend The Knee is raced by Carl Holt (who also celebrated Zaaki’s brilliant MacKinnon Stakes victory), George Kairouz, Finemore Thoroughbreds and Arrowfield with Katsumi Yoshida, the owner of Port Louis (Maurice-Cat By The Tale).

Kneeling has a 2YO filly Dashing Legend (by Snitzel), bought by Bon Ho and in training with Hawkes Racing, and a yearling filly by The Autumn Sun. The mare has a positive test to Maurice.

Bend The Knee takes Snitzel’s career tally of stakeswinners to 116, with a table-leading nine successful in Australia this season.