Australian Sires Have Boxing Day Classic Double in NZ
06-01-2012
BOTH the Group 2 races for the current classic generation, the 3-year-olds, held over 1600m at Trentham, Wellington, New Zealand on Boxing Day, were by annexed by progeny of eminent younger sires in Australia with the first of them, the Great Northern Guineas, being taken out by Knight’s Tour, a son of the Zabeel sire Reset (Darley’s Northwood Park, Seymour, Victoria), and the second by Planet Rock, a filly by Danehill’s champion sprinting son Fastnet Rock (Coolmore, Hunter Valley).
Bred by Darley in Australia, but sold to Shelby Park, New Zealand for $25,000 as a weanling at Inglis sales and resold at the New Zealand Bloodstock Select Yearling sale for $65,000, Knight’s Tour had only raced twice earlier, winning a minor event at Te Aroha and finishing third at Auckland, earning $3,173. He is a brother to Dennis The Menace, a $11,000 Gold Coast yearling who has won twice in Melbourne, and is from Hestia, an England bred winner of one race, a juvenile in Ireland, by Danehill’s Mr. Prospector relation Machiavellian. Sky Song, a half-sister to Hestia, went to Zabeel’s greatest racing son, Lonhro’s sire Octagonal (by Sir Tristram) on one of his four visits to France,1998-2001, and produced Laverock, a winner of one Group1 race each in France and Italy and a placegetter in four others.
The result of the Great Northern Guineas was a trifecta for Zabeel as, besides getting the winner’s sire Reset, he was responsible for the dams of second and third, Ocean Park (by Thorn Park) and Burgundy (Redoute’s Choice). Burgundy was got at Arrowfield, Scone, but foaled in New Zealand. Zabeel is also the sire of the dams of first and third placegetters in the Great Northern Guineas, Planet Rock and Silent Achiever (by O’Reilly). They were separated by the Anton Koolman Bloodstock, NSW bred filly Testa Secret. Exported to New Zealand as a yearling, she is by the Vinery stud, Scone based Testa Rossa.
Winner of four of eight starts, including the Group1 New Zealand One Thousand Guineas and the Eight Carat Classic, Planet Rock was bred in NSW by W.J. Gleeson, exported to New Zealand as a foal on his dam Akris and sold at their yearling sales to a bid of $290,000 by G.C. Beemsterboer, Netherlands. Akris, a winner of one very minor race, is a half-sister to Gorky Park (by Montjeu), a winner of two Listed races, second in the Victoria Derby and third in the STC H.E. Tancred Stakes.
Courtesy of Brian Russell Bloodstock Media Service
