Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Written by Jessica Owers
The Ipswich Turf Club will host the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic on Saturday, a sprint feature for the fillies and mares over 1200 metres. Won in the past by the likes of Dorf Command (Commands) and half-sisters Peron (Husson {Arg}) and Gai’s Choice (General Nediym), the race is an interesting feature from a bloodstock perspective.
This year, the field is headed by the 4-year-old Lillemor, a daughter of Hallowed Crown that was bred, and is raced, by Twin Palms Stud and the Johnson family.
The mare is the last foal from the G1 Golden Slipper-winning broodmare Polar Success (Success Express {USA}), who passed away in February 2017.
Slipper family
Polar Success was bred by Gerry Harvey and sold as a yearling to Graeme Rogerson for just $32,000. That was in 2002 and, trained by Rogerson throughout her career, she won a Golden Slipper that included a host of excellent horses, including Hasna (Snippets), Exceed And Excel, Shamekha (Secret Savings {USA}) and Niello.
Polar Success won four races, including the G2 Riesling S. in 2003, and over $2 million in prizemoney. Her early yearlings sold for substantial sums, including Polarmore (More Than Ready {USA}), who fetched $500,000 from Segenhoe Stud at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2012. The mare herself sold from Twin Palms Stud through the Inglis Broodmare and Weanling Sale in 2009 for $1.2 million.
Polar Success when racing
It’s a family that is clearly close to the heart of the Johnson family.
In 2018, at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, Twin Palms Stud bought Mystical Tale (Encosta De Lago) from Yarraman Park, a granddaughter of Polar Success through the mare Fiction (NZ) (Redoute’s Choice). They paid just $90,000 for her.
In turn, she produced a colt by Capitalist in 2019 that was the highest-priced yearling on day one of this year’s Inglis Classic Sale. He made $600,000, selling to James Harron.
“It makes all the effort worthwhile,” Kate Johnson said, overwhelmed in the aftermath of the sale. “We bought the mare (Mystical Tale) because of the connection with Polar Success. My grandfather and my dad bought her (Polar Success), and we lost her only a couple of years ago, so it was nice to have a bit of the family.”
The Capitalist colt was the second foal from Mystical Tale, with her first foal by No Nay Never (USA) selling at the same sale in 2020 for $200,000. She has a Capitalist filly on the ground, and is due to foal to Dundeel (NZ) this spring.
You can’t touch this
Slipper-winning Polar Success was 16 when she dropped Lillemor, and the filly has grown into a smallish bay mare, just 15.2 hands high and 470 kilograms.
Trained by John O’Shea at Randwick, she is a pleasant horse to ride, but is known around the yard as a professional biter.
“She’s alright if you don’t touch her,” said O’Shea’s racing foreman, Alex Maher. “She’s a lovely ride, but she just doesn’t like to be brushed or touched.”
“She’s (Lillemor) alright if you don’t touch her. She’s a lovely ride, but she just doesn’t like to be brushed or touched.” - Alex Maher
It can be a common trait among the better mares, with More Joyous (NZ) (More Than Ready {USA}) springing to mind. Otherwise, Lillemor has been a wonderful addition to O’Shea’s yard, and has her eye fixed on black-type success this weekend.
“She’d probably deserve that,” Maher said. “She’s very honest, and hopefully she can get that bit of black type for the owners. She’s got one thing to her, and that’s jump and run. So she’ll be in the first couple on Saturday and, when she’s like that, she’s very hard to hold out.”
Lillemor | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Wide-open race
Lillemor has had 16 starts in her career to date, winning six for just over $275,000 in prizemoney. She is yet to win at black-type level, but has run into decent opposition in Emeralds (Sebring) and Godolphin galloper Varda (Lonhro), who won the Listed Chief De Beers last month.
At her last start, Lillemor won a BM78 race at Randwick, defeating 3-year-old colt Malkovich (Choisir) and Bellucci Babe (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}). She heads into the Gai Waterhouse Classic as the only last-start winner (without a spell), and is an obvious favourite in the betting.
“She’s won a few Saturday races now, so the next thing for her is to go back to a Saturday here in Sydney, or try your luck at a decent black-type race,” Maher said. “She’s got no weight at Ipswich, and she just likes to roll around in front, so hopefully she can do that.”
Lillemor will carry 54kg, getting five kilograms from the top-weighted Pennino (Easy Rocking). She will jump from barrier seven, which Maher said isn’t great, but isn’t a disaster either.
“She’ll be very hard to beat if all goes right,” he said. “She’s got a lot of gate speed, and she’ll be hard to hold from the front. One of John’s former horses in Intrepidacious is also in the field, and she likes to go forward too, so it will be interesting. It’s a very strong race, and there’s probably no standout. They’ve all got different form-lines.”
Intrepidacious (Shooting To Win) will be Lee Freedman’s first runner since the trainer’s relocation to the Gold Coast from Singapore. The mare sold at the recent Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, making $575,000 for her co-owners, Francis and Christine Cook of Mystery Downs.
She will be joined in the field by perennial bridesmaid Boomtown Lass (Spirit Of Boom), who has placed in her last five starts and who will be looking to break her stakes duck on Saturday.
