Redoute’s Choice sons end 2016 with a flourish
Arrowfield’s sire sons of Redoute’s Choice have been among the big stories of 2016 and they ended the year on Saturday with a final flourish of success, tempered by the death of Beneteau’s brilliant son Weatherly in Sydney.
Not A Single Doubt opened the batting with the debut at Canterbury of his 2YO daughter From Within (ex Zimaretto by Anabaa) from the Chris Waller yard for owners Mark Sowerby and Raffles Racing.
From Within duly delivered, with a trio of Snitzels, the colts Invader & Chauffeur and the filly Exceeds, chasing her home. The filly’s official winning margin of 1.25 lengths could have been considerably more, because Glyn Schofield eased her down in the closing stages, and she still ran the final 600 metres in 34.80.
Watch From Within’s debut victory at Canterbury.
Bookmakers immediately made her favourite for the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (R) LR on 14 January, and her trainer Chris Waller indicated that, much like Not A Single Doubt’s 2011 Magic Millions winner Karuta Queen, she has everything it takes to win the race.
“She’s a ready-made two-year-old, very professional. Has speed, manners, knows that to do, relaxes and switches off.”
Snitzel quickly set about filling his side of the ledger, winning the next race at Canterbury with Spending To Win and the card’s feature race, the $150,000 Canterbury Classic 1200m LR with his 47th stakeswinner, Le Cordon Bleu.
Spending To Win, a grey son of the Invincible Spirit mare Madame Trop Vite, secured a strong maiden success on his return from tie-back surgery. The 3YO colt had shown good ability in three juvenile placings and jockey Blake Shinn was enthusiastic about his performance over 1100m in class record time of 1:03.86.
“The horse did a great job. Had to do a bit of work early to get across and travelled really nicely. First-up today off a relatively quick tempo was a fantastic effort.”
Sadly, it was after this race that Weatherly, the son of Beneteau and Luna Bella trained by Paul Messara for Sumaya Stables, was euthanased after fracturing his near-fore sesamoid about 600 metres after the start. The stunning colt made a very favourable impression when he won last season’s VRC Talindert S. LR and he seemed likely to be one of Sydney racing’s Autumn 2017 stars. His death compounds the loss of Beneteau who died almost three years ago and has now compiled 20 stakes performers from 91 runners.
6YO gelding Le Cordon Bleu (ex Ultimate Fever by Gold Fever) rewarded the patience of his breeder Luskin Park Stud, Wilf & Rosemary Mula and their fellow owners when he drove home from well of the pace to win the Canterbury Classic by almost a length from Wouldn’t It Be Nice and Grunderzeit.
Watch Le Cordon Bleu win the ATC Canterbury Classic LR.
Trained by Hawkes Racing, Le Cordon Bleu has now won five of his 16 starts for prizemoney of almost $350,000.
Between those two city victories, Corumbene Stud’s promising 3YO Treviso gave Snitzel a win at Gosford, where he won on debut last June before finishing third behind Russian Revolution and Morton’s Fork at Randwick.
Not A Single Doubt and Snitzel have made a big impact on 2016 racing with 27 winners of 44 Group & Listed Races between them, and sit third and fourth on the current Australian Sires’ list with collective prizemoney of almost $10 million. Vendors of their 79 yearlings on offer at the Magic Millions Sale can look forward to being very busy indeed when parading starts at the Gold Coast later this week.
