Yao Dash (4 g Smart Missile x Rahy Storm by Rahy) skipped away with the Doncaster Prelude (Gr 3, 1500m) to secure his place in the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) as he became the 20th individual stakes winner for his sire Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock).
Newhaven Park bred and sold Yao Dash became the 20th stakes-winner for his Twin Hills based sire Smart Missile when scoring a resounding victory in the Group III ATC Doncaster Prelude (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
Twin Hills Stud have made a great impression at Australian yearling sales in the past couple of years and Olly Tait believes the three yearlings selected for the farm’s first foray into the elite Inglis Easter market will continue the trend.
Two graduates from the breeze-up sales at Sydney and Karaka in 2020 have made quick progression to the winner’s stall with victories in the two 2-year-old races at Ballarat on Sunday.
The Patrick Payne-trained filly Douceur (No Nay Never {USA}) finished powerfully to win the Bartlett Blinds 2YO Mdn Plate over 1110 metres on the Heavy 8 surface.
Since being elevated to Group 1 status in 1986, the G1 Chipping Norton S. has been won by some of Australia’s greatest horses, the likes of Super Impose, Octagonal (NZ), Lonhro and of course the two horses which won the race on four occasions, Tie The Knot (Nassipour {USA}) and Winx (Street Cry {Ire}).
On Saturday, two star mares, Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) and Colette (Hallowed Crown), will look to add their names to that illustrious honour board, in a race which only the best mares have won over the years.
The signs were positive for the high-class Hallowed Crown mare Colette in Saturday’s $250,000 Group II Yulong Apollo Stakes when the skies opened in Sydney on Saturday morning.
Colette had trainer James Cummings rethinking his autumn carnival plans for the talented mare after a brilliant return to racing at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
“I was thinking of aiming her at the Sydney Cup but I don’t know if we will go that way now,’’ Cummings said. “She has just been going so well and she well and truly has the Queen Elizabeth Stakes on the radar.
Can the Hallowed Crown filly Flexible do a Colette and win the ATC Australian Oaks? You wouldn’t bet against it the way she powered to the line over 1400m at Randwick-Kensington on Wednesday.
The long-awaited and deserved maiden Group 1 success for Hot King Prawn in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday also provided a breakthrough for his sire Denman, who has been rewarded for his own consistency with elevated status as a Group 1-producing stallion.
Denman’s progeny had come close on several occasions to elite-level success, with Hot King Prawn placed three times in Group 1s before his latest success, while the likes of Kuro (NZ) and Denmagic had also finished inside the top three in Group 1 races in Australia.
The now Twin Hills Stud resident has produced 16 stakes winners across four countries, including the American-bred Angaston (USA), conceived in his one season shuttling to Darley in Kentucky.
Hot King Prawn (Denman) washed away months of frustration and doubt with an emphatic performance to claim his first Group 1 title with victory in yesterday’s Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m).
