Right as Rain at Gold Coast & Moonee Valley
A new stakes performer and an easy city winner gave progressive young sire Manhattan Rain a mid-winter boost on Saturday.
At Moonee Valley in Melbourne 3YO filly Wild Rain scored an easy win over 1000 metres after settling in the trail behind the early leaders. Taken wide around the turn by jockey Glen Boss, she sped home to score by 2.5 lengths from Pilly’s Wish and It’s Poets Day.
It was the chestnut filly’s third city success and fourth win from 10 starts for trainer Mark Kavanagh who said she would be aimed at the popular series of 955-metre sprints held at Moonee Valley during the summer. “She’s a great little horse and we’ll just keep her going.”
Bred by the partnership of Arrowfield & Planette Thoroughbred, Wild Rain is from North Flower (by Rory’s Jester), herself a 2YO winner at Morphettville and a half-sister to Group winners North Boy and Northern Song, and to the dam of 2003 Horse of the Year Northerly.
North Flower has also left the stakes-placed city winner Flowerchild to Redoute’s Choice, and has an unraced 2YO filly by Starcraft named Tahlia Star and a weanling filly by Animal Kingdom.
Wild Rain was a $150,000 Kavanagh buy from Arrowfield at the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale and is raced by Isobel & Levi Kavanagh, Brett Griffith & Tim Storey of Collins St Partners, Wade McKibben, Stan & Anna Hunt and Gary & Rhonda Ma.
A little earlier in the day Manhattan Rain’s 3YO son Right or Wrong continued his progress in good company with a hard-fought second in the $125,000 Qld Tatt’s RC Daybreak Lover S. 1800m LR.
It was the gelding’s first try beyond the 1600 metres of his second win at Ipswich last month, and only New Zealand filly No Tricks denied him a stakes victory, by a long neck.
Bred by Steve Tregea’s Windemere Stud in Queensland, Right or Wrong is the third winner out of the Flying Spur mare Impulsive Lass, herself a city-winning half-sister to Blue Diamond G1 winner Reward For Effort, multiple stakeswinner Consular and Bahia, the dam of Overreach (Golden Slipper G1).
Group 2 winner Moonovermanhattan (also from a Flying Spur mare) heads Manhattan Rain’s record of four stakeswinners and four other stakes performers among 33 worldwide first-crop winners.
Third by winners on the Australian 2nd Season Sires’ list, the half-brother to Redoute’s Choice has amassed 2014/15 earnings of more than $1.7 million. He has also achieved career-high yearling prices of $700,000 for the La Bamba colt and $360,000 for the Gibraltar Campion filly, both purchased from April’s Inglis Easter Sale.
