Summer Passage wins Group 1 Sires’ Produce
Snitzel’s headline-making season continued on Thursday when his 2YO son Summer Passage stepped up from Listed success at Matamata last month to take out the $200,000 ARC Ellerslie Sires’ Produce S. 1200m G1.
The race, sponsored by Brendan & Jo Lindsay’s recently sold company Sistema Plastics, began with a three-horse battle for the lead as Summer Passage sped forward from the outside gate to join Ujjayyi and Felton Road. The trio settled in front and jockey Blake Shinn let Summer Passage get round the home turn before applying pressure which dropped off his co-leaders as Star Treasure and Gold Fever emerged from the pack.
However, placings were their lot as the Snitzel colt’s class shone in the final stages and he pulled away for a convincing three-quarter length win, his second from three starts since his late January debut for owner Hermitage Thoroughbreds and trainers Lance O’Sullivan & Andrew Scott.
Watch Summer Passage win the ARC Ellerslie Sires’ Produce S. G1.
The result was also a triumph for Ron & Deb Gilbert’s Highgrove Stud, based in the famous Darling Downs region of Queensland. Summer Passage was knocked down to Wexford Stables for $800,000 at the 2016 Inglis Easter Sale and joins Group 1 winners Porto Roca & Wanted, Group 2 winner Shrapnel (by Charge Forward) and Listed winner Thronum (also by Snitzel) on the boutique farm’s graduate list.
Summer Passage is the second foal of Subsequent, a winning daughter of Encosta De Lago and he was as much a star of Highgrove’s draft as he was at Ellerslie.
Ron Gilbert recalls, “He was a very good sort. The good yearlings tend to pick themselves and this bloke certainly did that.
“They’re standouts from day one, there’s never an issue with them, they’ve very popular with potential buyers and they never turn a hair.”
Subsequent, from the family of Group 2 winner Shania Dane and Group winners Order Of The Sun (in Singapore) and Scintillation (in Hong Kong) has a yearling colt by Sebring, a weanling filly by Snitzel and is again in foal to the superstar son of Redoute’s Choice.
Summer Passage, previously nominated for the Golden Slipper, is now likely to make the trip across the Tasman for the $1 million Inglis Sires’ 1400m G1 on 1 April, the first day of The Championships at Randwick.
Snizel shows no sign of breaking his record-setting habit, with 21 stakeswinners for the season to date, and 24 individual 2YO winners, six of them stakeswinners: Summer Passage, Azazel, Ducimus, Jukebox and two of his four Golden Slipper G1 runners on Saturday, Teaspoon & Trapeze Artist.
Snitzel has 42 yearlings on offer at the 2017 Inglis Easter Sale which begins on 4 April, among them Highgrove’s colt out of Simply Spiteful (by Speightstown), and six colts & 8 fillies in Arrowfield’s consignment.
