By Bren O'Brien
The successful connection between trainer Neville Parnham and Bowness Stud has been further enhanced by the emergence of sprint star Indian Pacific (Zoustar), who became the third stakes winner sourced by the Western Australian trainer from the Young-based nursery in the past decade.
Indian Pacific's victory in Saturday's Listed RS Crawford S. at Ascot was his sixth in just eight starts, and such is the trajectory of his racing career to date, he is being aimed at a possible tilt at the G1 Winterbottom S. next month.
A $110,000 purchase from the 2018 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, he joins a couple of other Bowness Stud sale graduates in becoming a stakes winner for the Parnhams.
In 2011, Neville Parnham paid $70,000 for filly by Dubawi (Ire) at the Magic Million Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Named Bippo No Bungus, she would win over $420,000 in prizemoney with a Listed Starstruck Classic among her four wins, while she was also placed in a G2 Sunline S.
Two years later at the Inglis Classic Sale, Parnham was once again buying from Bowness Stud, picking up a son of Magnus for $40,000. That proved a very canny buy as the horse, Malibu Style, has returned his connections over $1 million, in a successful and as yet unfinished 68-start career which has featured 11 wins.
Included among his successes are four stakes win, including the 2016 Crawford S. the same race won by his rising star stablemate and fellow Bowness graduate on Saturday.
Bowness Stud principal John North remembers Indian Pacific as a quality yearling, and he was happy to see where he ended up given Parnham's previous success with horses off the farm.
Indian Pacific as a yearling
"He was always a very nice horse and always a very good type of horse. We took him to Melbourne to sell and Neville Parnham liked him and bought him," he told TDN AusNZ.
"He generally buys one or two off us every couple of years and has had some success. He's a good trainer and they always seem to win for him."
North has been following the burgeoning career of Indian Pacific with some enthusiasm, and believes he looks like he can continue his rapid ascension through the classes.
"He looks a horse that can make good progress. I'd say if they can get him there, the Winterbottom would be a good target," he said.
"He looks a horse that can make good progress. I'd say if they can get him there, the Winterbottom would be a good target." - John North
North is still breeding with his dam, Rosarino (Perugino {USA}), who has proven a terrific buy having been purchased for $4250 back in 2012 at the Inglis Great Southern Sale.
As well as producing Indian Pacific as a $110,000 yearling, she also produced a colt by Extreme Choice, now named Finance Choice and in work with Lindsay Park, fetched the same price at this year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to McKeever Bloodstock.
"He was always more of a smaller, compact speedy sort of conveyance as compared to Indian Pacific and I wouldn't be surprised to see him turn up in a 2-year-old race somewhere," North said.
A winner of the Listed Talindert S. Rosarino has produced six winners from seven to the track, including the stakes-placed Heavy (Domesday).
She foaled a filly by Super One earlier this spring and is set to visit Bowness Stud resident D'Argento this spring.
D'Argento (white cap) | Standing at Bowness Stud
D'Argento off to flying start
D'Argento stands for $16,500 (inc GST) and North said things have progressed extremely well with his first season at stud.
"He's got around 140 mares booked in and they are going in foal very well. He’ll get his opportunity," he said.
"He's got a lot of good mares, a lot of stakes winning and stakes-producing mares and so we are pretty bullish on him. The So You Thinks seem to be going from strength to strength at the moment."
The versatility of the So You Think (NZ) sireline, as evidenced by his recent stakes winner Peltzer, who won the G2 Stan Fox S., is something which gives North plenty of confidence in his Group 1-winning son.
"They seem to performing well and they seem to be able to show up over the sprint distances," he said.
"That versatility will be a big asset. He was that sort of horse himself. He won his first two starts at two and won a Group 1 at three and went on and ran in all the big races. He was a very good horse."
Indian Pacific was the second stakes winning graduate for Bowness in as many weeks after Chapada, who is by former Bowness resident Bullet Train (GB), won the G2 Herbert Power S. at Caulfield earlier this month.
Chapada
"It was good to see him do that. He didn’t quite back-up again when ninth on the Caulfield Cup, but it was a positive to see him get that stakes win," he said.
"We’ve had a few other good runners of late, including Too Big Fari in The Kosciuszko the other day.
"There's also Either Oar, who is with Glenda Markwell. She has won at Kembla and Newcastle and is heading to town now. She's a horse with a fair bit of potential."
