Hazard’s ripper season
At the start of this season Flying Spur’s 5YO daughter Hazard looked like a candidate for that unlucky band of talented mares who build good records, but retire to stud without the stakes-winning status they really deserve.
Thankfully, Godolphin kept her in training and Hazard is now a dual Group winner after her success in last Saturday’s $200,000 BRC Dane Ripper S. 1350m G2.
That performance, defeating multiple Group winner & Group 1 placegetter Catkins, confirmed Hazard’s coming of age after more than three years of steady development by Anthony Freedman, now training in partnership with brother Lee.
A debut win can be a sign of stakes-winning potential and Hazard delivered it as a 2YO when she narrowly defeated subsequent Group 2 winner & Group 1 performer Angelic Light at Geelong in April 2012.
Eight months later she began a sequence of four consecutive 3YO successes, three of them in Melbourne at 1200m, 1400m & 1600m, and a black type win seemed imminent.
However, her career stalled after a runner-up finish in the SAJC Laelia S. LR at three and her 4YO season was a little disappointing, despite a valuable win at Bendigo, a Group 3 second and a Listed third.
It took five starts this term for Hazard to find the winner’s circle again, over 1000 metres at Caulfield in April. Unplaced in the MRC Bel Esprit S. LR later that month, she then hit her most rewarding patch of form, winning three races in three states from 2 May to 6 June, including the SAJC Proud Miss S. G3 and now the Dane Ripper.
That brings her record to a thoroughly admirable 10 wins, five placings and $551,615 from 25 starts, and elevated status as the best of four Group winners left by her outstanding dam Dawn Attack (by Fantastic Light) to four different stallions before her premature death in 2013.
Dawn Attack’s other three performers are the fillies Crucial (by Nadeem) and Antelucan (by Domesday), and the gelding Java (by Medaglia d’Oro).
Darley’s Managing Director Henry Plumptre says, “Interestingly, Hazard has been the most backward of the four mentally, with Antelucan a two-year-old stakeswinner and both Java and Crucial showing plenty as two- and three-year-olds.
“As a type, she is a big strong girl now. Plenty of strength and scope, with a preference for good tracks.
“Dawn Attack was a great mare for our operation and it is good fortune that we have three stakes-winning daughters.”
Hazard, dual New Zealand Group 1 winner Sacred Star and Singapore speedster Zac Spirit head Flying Spur’s seven stakeswinners among 90 winners worldwide this season.
The now-retired champion sire now has a career tally of 97 stakeswinners and a century is in sight with the 173 foals from his last two crops about to turn three and four.
Flying Spur still appears in the top 30 stallions on the Australian General Sires’ list, but his best performance is now on the Broodmare Sires’ table where he’s become a regular fixture behind Danehill and Zabeel, and alongside his relative Encosta de Lago and, more recently, Redoute’s Choice.
In 2014/15 Flying Spur’s best second-generation runner has been Victoria Derby G1 winner Preferment, one of three Group winners from only 8 named foals bred on the Zabeel/Flying Spur cross.
