Looking Ahead puts the spotlight on runners of interest across Australia and New Zealand. Whether they are a particularly well-bred or high-priced runner having their first or second start, a promising galloper returning to the track or a horse which has trialled particularly well, we’ll aim to give you something to follow.
We kick off selections on Saturday at Te Rapa with a well-bred Fastnet Rock filly, Never Forgotten, who will attempt to get off the mark in the first race on the card. We then move to Doomben, where Freeman, a filly by Aquis Farm’s first-season sire Lean Mean Machine, will want to make her presence felt on debut. We finish the afternoon at Rosehill where Misty Legend (I Am Invincible) will make his debut in the $1 million Golden Gift.
Te Rapa, Race 1, 10.45am AEDT (12.45pm local), SVS Starting Gates 2YO, $30,000, 1000m
Never Forgotten, 2-year-old filly (Fastnet Rock x Memories Of You {Ire} {Galileo {Ire}})
This well-bred filly will be attempting to get off the mark for the first time of asking when she lines up at Te Rapa on Saturday. Owned by Te Akau and trained by Mark Walker, the daughter of Coolmore’s Fastnet Rock will jump from barrier one with Sam Spratt on board.
Purchased by Te Akau supremo David Ellis for NZ$850,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale in 2022, the filly is out of the unplaced mare Memories Of You (Ire), making her a sister to G1 Australian Oaks winner Unforgotten and she counts stakes-placed gelding Yiyi (No Nay Never {USA}) among her half-siblings.
Never Forgotten as a yearling | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
The further family is very deep, with Memories Of You being out of the top-producing mare Most Precious (USA) (Nureyev {USA}) and she is also the dam of dual Group 1 winner Matiara (USA) (Bering {GB}) and Group 2-winning duo Pyrus (USA) (Mr Prospector {USA}) and stallion Marathon (USA).
Never Forgotten is bred on the highly successful Fastnet Rock / Galileo (Ire) cross, which has produced 15 stakes winners headed by nine Group 1 winners, including this filly’s aforementioned sister Unforgotten.
Doomben, Race 1, 1.08pm AEDT (12.08pm local), Pierata First Yearlings In 2023 QTIS 2-Year-Old H., $75,000, 1100m
Freeman, 2-year-old filly (Lean Mean Machine x Nashville Skyline {Not A Single Doubt})
Freeman will make her debut for trainer Chris Munce at Doomben on Saturday and she will break from barrier four with Samantha Collett in the plate.
No stranger to a sales ring, the filly was purchased by Robyn Wise for $42,500 at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale in 2021, before being snapped up by her trainer and Arthur Hoyeau for $240,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale the following year.
Freeman as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
By Aquis Farm’s first-season sire Lean Mean Machine, the filly is out of three-time-winning dam, Nashville Skyline by Not A Single Doubt.
Further back this is the same family as Group 3 winner Musidora (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), the dam of dual Group 3 winner Tulip (Pierro) and fellow Group 3 scorer Sacred Eye (High Chaparral {Ire}).
Rosehill, Race 6, 3.30pm AEDT, Golden Gift, $1,000,000, 1100m
Misty Legend, 2-year-old colt (I Am Invincible x Into The Mist {Redoute’s Choice})
Co-trainers Richard and Will Freedman will be hoping expensive colt, Misty Legend, can live up to his high-class pedigree and price-tag when he takes aim at the $1 million Golden Gift at Rosehill.
The son of I Am Invincible was purchased by his owner Bon Ho of Legend Racing for $700,000 at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and he is a son of G2 SAJC Queen of the South S.-winning mare Into The Mist, who has produced one winner, Limited Vision (Lonhro).
Misty Legend as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Into The Mist is herself out of G2 VRC Sires’ Produce S. winner De Lago Mist (Encosta De Lago) meaning she is a three-quarter sister to multiple stakes winner Instinction (Exceed And Excel) and Shrouded In Mist (Exceed And Excel), who also won the G2 SAJC Queen of the South S.
The colt will line up in barrier seven with William Pike booked to take the ride.
Looking Back
Our Looking Ahead selections on Friday were relatively luckless. Our first selection, Fields Of Joy (Deep Field) finished sixth at Pakenham, while Oxfordshire (Churchill {Ire}) was unplaced at the same track. Our best result came courtesy of All So Easy (All Too Hard), who finished a distant second at Albury.
