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| Close Epsom Derby Link For New Zealand Breeders |
9 Jun 2004 |
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North Light's win in the Gr. 1 English Derby on Sunday (NZ time) has had a major spin-off for the New Zealand thoroughbred breeding industry.
North Light is closely related to the English Two Thousand Guineas winner, Golan, who stands his southern hemisphere breeding seasons at Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand.
Golan's grand-dam, Scots Lass, is a winning half-sister to North Light's dam, Gr. 1 Prix du Cadran winner Sought Out.
Both Golan (by Spectrum, a son of Rainbow Quest) and Sought Out (by Rainbow Quest) are also from the same sire line.
North Light has become the second English classic winner produced from this family in the past three years with Golan having won the English Two Thousand Guineas in the same year as he finished a meritorious second in the Epsom Derby.
Golan went on to capture the Gr. 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Royal Ascot the following season.
The parallels between Golan and North Light go even further.
The pair were bred at Ballymacoll Stud Farm in County Meath, Ireland, which has bred a host of top-class horses.
Golan's trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, also prepares North Light and both horses were mounts of experienced jockey Kieran Fallon.
North Light won the Epsom Derby at only his fourth race-day appearance and has won three of his four starts to date.
Sir Michael Stoute said North Light will head next for a start in the Irish Derby.
Jockey Kieren Fallon said North Light had always been one of his favourite horses and felt like a Derby horse from the moment he first sat on him at Sandown.
North Light shared favouritism for the English Derby after impressively winning the Gr. 2 Dante Stakes at York last month. Earlier this year another close relative, Gamut, won the Gr. 2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket.
The golden run of the family in recent months has provided a double boost for Windsor Park Stud. Not only does it stand Golan, but it recently purchased the In The Wings mare, Prompt Payment, who is from the same family.
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| MONTJEU STRIKES AGAIN – TWO RUNNERS, TWO WINNERS IN TWO DAYS |
5 Jun 2004 |
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 Following on from immediate success with his first runner Kings Quay on Thursday, champion racehorse Montjeu had his second runner and second winner in two days, in England yesterday. The 2YO colt Where With All, owned by Godolphin and trained by Saeed Bin Suroor, was too strong for his rivals when comfortably winning the EBF 2YO Maiden over 6f. (1200m) at Haydock Park by 2½ lengths.
Montjeu’s first winner Kings Quay, trained by Richard Hannon Jr, is now being aimed at the Royal Ascot meeting later this month.
“Make no mistake, this is one of our best two year olds”, Hannon Jr said. “He certainly won’t be running over five (furlongs) again and will go to Royal Ascot now for either the group two Coventry Stakes or the listed Chesham Stakes”.
Unbeaten as a 2YO, when winner of the listed Prix Isonomy at Longchamp, Montjeu became the highest rated three year old in the world in 1999 when his group one victories included the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as well as the Irish and French Derby’s. At four, Montjeu gained further group one glory, emphatically beating the best European racehorses in the King George V1 & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Royal Ascot. Montjeu’s success comes as no surprise considering he remains the highest rated son of his great sire Sadler’s Wells, whose 230 stakes winners include 63 group one winners. Since commencing stud duties at Coolmore Stud in Ireland, Montjeu has ‘shuttled’ each season to his southern hemisphere base at Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge, New Zealand. This year, Montjeu’s first New Zealand premier yearlings made their sale-ring debut where they averaged $130,000 and sold up to $460,000. |
| FIRST RUNNER, FIRST WINNER FOR MONTJEU |
4 Jun 2004 |
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Dual champion European racehorse Montjeu has met with instant success as a sire.
His very first runner, the Richard Hannon-trained Kings Quay, was successful in a five furlong (1000m) 2YO event at Sandown, England, yesterday.
Kings Quay showed plenty of speed to extricate himself from a pocket and quicken clear of the field in good style to win by one and a quarter lengths.
Montjeu was himself an unbeaten 2YO stakes winner of the Prix Isonomy and went on to establish himself as the world champion three-year-old, winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Irish Derby and the French Derby at that age.
In total, Montjeu’s outstanding racing career netted six Group I wins. Also included among his victories was the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Royal Ascot. His performances on the racetrack saw him achieve a very high annual Timeform Rating of 137.
News of Montjeu’s winner is another strong boost for the New Zealand bloodstock industry. The son of Sadler’s Wells has stood at Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge for the past three seasons and will shuttle from Coolmore Stud in Ireland to Windsor Park again later this year.
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| Quiet Please Serves Up Another Big Win |
24 May 2004 |
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Rangiora-based property developer Geoff Taylor is enjoying the outstanding run of success in recent weeks by Mark Walker-trained Quiet Please.
The Kaapstad three-year-old filly was purchased by Taylor from her breeders, Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge, as a young horse and taken to the South Island.
Taylor has in turn leased Quiet Please out for racing purposes to a group of his friends. "She is being raced by a group of North Canterbury tennis enthusiasts, hence her name Quiet Please," Taylor said.
Quiet Please's dam is the well-performed Star Way mare, Du Chalet, who registered five wins during her racing career.
Quiet Please has been most impressive in winning her last two starts by a combined margin of more than 10 lengths. The latest of these wins came over 1400m at the Riccarton meeting on Saturday.
Mark Walker's Rangiora stable foreman Gus Clutterbuck holds the filly in high regard and says even bigger things could be in store for her next season.
"She took a while to strengthen up but we didn't rush her and she's come on in leaps and bounds over the past couple of months," Clutterbuck said. "She has got a lot of ability and the plan now is to spell her and bring her back for the spring when she will be given opportunities to get some black type."
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| North Light joins favourites for Epsom Derby |
14 May 2004 |
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North Light’s win in the Gr. 2 Dante Stakes at York this week has seen him move quickly up the betting charts for next month’s prestigious Epsom Derby.
The Dante Stakes has traditionally been a good guide to the Epsom Derby and North Light certainly put up a performance with Derby material stamped all over it.
The Sir Michael Stoute-trained North Light was ridden by Kieren Fallon and took control of the race 1000m from home and proved too strong for the Godolphin trained Rule Of Law.
North Light is closely related to former outstanding racehorse Golan who won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Stakes, and the Gr. 1, English Two Thousand Guineas, Gr. 1 and also finished runner-up in the Epsom Derby in his classic year. Golan now stands at Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand during his southern hemisphere and Coolmore Stud in Ireland during the Northern hemisphere breeding season.
The sire of Golan, Spectrum, was to the fore in Australia last month as the sire of AJC Oaks, Gr. 1, winner Wild Iris. It was Wild Iris’s third win in a row and is Spectrum’s forth Group One winner.
North Light is a brother to smart middle-distance perfomer Researched and a half-brother to dual Royal Ascot winner Cover Up. Their dam Sought Out won the 1992 Prix du Cadran (Gr. 1) over 4000m.
Also from the same family comes the recent Gr. 2 Jockey Club Stakes winner Gamut.
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| All-Round Success For Sire |
11 May 2004 |
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Proven sire Kaapstad had a memorable weekend both on and off the track.
The beautifully-bred son of Sir Tristram and Eight Carat completed a trans-tasman double on the racetrack and had a good result in the sale ring.
At the Rotorua meeting in New Zealand Kaapstad got the day off on the right note by siring the winner of the first race, Illicitly.
In Australia the latest success for Kaapstad came when Iris Kiap won at a meeting on the Gold Coast.
Then at the Select Weanling Sale at Karaka yesterday Kaapstad produced one of the highest-priced lots – a colt from Gr. 3 Lowland Stakes winner Groundless Threats fetching $56,000. The colt was purchased by Michael Kirwin of Coolmore Australia on behalf of Fenor Bloodstock, Hamilton.
Kaapstad will stand at Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand this spring at a fee of $15,000 plus gst.
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| Half The Card Won By Windsor Park Sires |
11 May 2004 |
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The progeny of sires standing at Windsor Park Stud captured half the card at Saturday’s Rotorua meeting.
Heading the successful day was Casual Lies who sired two winners including No Fibs who was first home in the feature race of the day, the Gr. 3 $80,000 First Sovereign Trust Rotorua Cup (2300m).
It was a notable training feat by Roger and Sheryl McGlade as No Fibs had not raced for six months, although she had won a trial at Te Awamutu a week beforehand.
No Fibs has already been a stakes winner during her career. In 2002 she won the Listed Forest Lake Gardens (2300m) at Te Rapa. She will have another chance to shoot for Group Three honours in the Cornwall Handicap at Ellerslie in June.
No Fibs is the second Group race winner this season for Casual Lies in the space of six weeks. The other was Silky Red Boxer who won the Gr. 2 Japan/NZ Trophy (1600m) at Tauranga in March.
Other Group winners sired by Casual Lies include Gr. 1 New Zealand Derby winner So Casual, Gr. 1 AJC Oaks-Metropolitan winner Coco Cobanna and Gr. 1 Auckland Cup winner Maguire.
No Fibs is owned by her breeder, Hamilton businessman John Wood, who intends to send the eight-year-old mare to stud this year.
Wood also featured as the breeder of another Rotorua winner, Parliament who is trained by the Mike Moroney-Andrew Scott combination. Parliament is a three-year-old gelding by two-time champion NZ sire Volksraad who is a clear-cut leader in the New Zealand sires’ premiership this season.
Other sires who have stood at Windsor Park in the winners’ circle at the Rotorua meeting were Kaapstad and Tale Of The Cat who were represented by Illicitly and Catscan respectively.
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