Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
Midweek meetings are always a talking point across the juvenile ranks, and on Wednesday, there was plenty to talk about at Canterbury Park and Doomben.
At the former, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott scored a 2-year-old double in the first two races, while at Doomben, Tony Gollan’s Snitzel colt Transatlantic, a son of the G1 Australian Oaks winner Gust Of Wind (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}), won at the second time of asking.
Transatlantic was third on debut earlier this month and, under a persistent ride from James Orman on Wednesday, he edged out the Les Kelly-trained Black Minto (Spill The Beans). He is the second surviving foal from Gust Of Wind, whom John Sargent sent out through 2015 and 2016 to an Oaks-winning career that also included a fourth in the Caulfield Cup and sixth in the Melbourne Cup.
Gollan got his hands on Transatlantic at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. The colt was consigned by Segenhoe Stud and the trainer, in partnership with Harbour Equine and John Foote Bloodstock (FBAA), purchased him for $360,000.
It may well prove good buying because this year at the same sale, Katsumi Yoshida went to $1.1 million for Transatlantic’s I Am Invincible half-sister.
Transatlantic as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
Gust Of Wind has had only the three foals in her breeding career, the first of which was the one-time winner Sirocco Gale (Snitzel). She was covered by Stay Inside last September.
First of two for Tulloch Lodge
In Sydney, debutante filly Tropical Squall (Prized Icon) provided a barnstorming spectacle in the opener at Canterbury Park when she clattered away with Adam Hyeronimus by 1.35l.
There was some chatter about her ahead of this debut because she was a $1.55 favourite, and most of that hype would have been drawn from her good trial form. She had been a close second and first in two barrier outings through May and early June.
Tropical Squall jumped from barrier three and hugged the rail into the straight, galloping away strongly from her opposition. The margin did little justice to the strength of the victory, with a final time of 1:13.98, the last 600 metres in 34.41s for her owner, Gooree Park Stud.
“It was quite an easy watch,” said Neil Payne, who was trackside representing Tulloch Lodge. “The second favourite put the pressure on but Adam was in control there on the fence. It was impressive, the last furlong. I liked how she stretched out getting to the line.
“That’s the Gooree Stud coming through them. Gai and Adrian love the Gooree horses and it’s great to get a winner in those colours.”
“That’s (the style of running) the Gooree Stud coming through them. Gai and Adrian love the Gooree horses and it’s great to get a winner in those colours.” - Neil Payne
Payne admitted that the stable hadn’t had a lot of 2-year-olds from Gooree the last handful of years, which might coincide with the stud’s scaling back of its thoroughbred stock at the death of Eduardo Cojuangco.
“We’d like to get more from there, that’s for sure,” Payne said. “We’ll take the win today (Wednesday) and where she’ll go from here, we’ll leave that up to the team at Tulloch Lodge. It’s exciting she’s got the win.”
Hyeronimus returned to scale with plenty of praise for the smart juvenile.
Tropical Squall | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
“She’s a big, strong filly with lovely action and a lovely attitude,” he said. “There’s not much to not like about her. I think she’s got quite a lot of ability. What she’s done there today, it was just a day out for her, really.”
First winner for Prized Icon
Tropical Squall isn’t a homebred for Gooree Park Stud. Rather, she was bred by Kooringal Stud north of Wagga, which stands Prized Icon for Gooree Park. The filly is the very first winner for her sire, coming from his inaugural crop that numbered 85 live foals.
Prized Icon is among the 32 first-season sires in Australia this season, and he’s had six horses to the track. For his first winner to come in such fetching fashion, and at a Sydney metro meeting, was a boon start.
“We’ve been waiting for them to get on the board, and she’s (Tropical Squall) a bit of a standout,” said Kooringal studmaster Angus Lamont. “I always had a big opinion of her as a weanling, which is why I took her to the weanling sales, just to show people a few of the types Prized Icon was getting.”
“I always had a big opinion of her as a weanling, which is why I took her to the weanling sales, just to show people a few of the types Prized Icon was getting.” - Angus Lamont
In 2021, Tropical Squall was part of a 14-horse draft that Lamont took to the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. It was important for Kooringal to showcase the first of the Prized Icons, and this dark filly, made in a mould not dissimilar to her sire, was one of two in the total draft.
She was bought by Gooree Park Stud for $16,000, with the other also selling to Gooree for $18,000. Across the whole catalogue, these were the only two weanlings by Prized Icon.
“She was a big-framed weanling,” Lamont said. “She fit a pretty big rug as a youngster, but she was nicely balanced. People were saying she was a bit big, but she was a nice size really. She was an early foal (August 18), and nice and mature to early. She’s a bit lighter in colour than her sire, but she’s certainly been stamped by him.”
Tropical Squall as a weanling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
In hindsight, selling Tropical Squall might be regrettable, and not just because she was a strapping winner on debut this week. Her dam, Squalls (Fusaichi Pegasus {USA}), died in March 2021 without leaving another foal.
Lamont had purchased Squalls privately for all of $1500 a handful of years ago in a situation he says was simply her falling out of commercial favour.
Squalls was initially a $440,000 Inglis Easter yearling in 2007, bought by Woodlands Stud from Coolmore and then sold for $220,000 in a Darley reduction to Glenn Burrows of Willow Park Stud.
She was a daughter of the very good mare Blue Storm (Bluebird {USA}), among whose descendants is the G1 Thousand Guineas winner Flit (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}).
Angus Lamont | Image courtesy of Kooringal Stud
For Lamont, buying Squalls for $1500 was all about her line-breeding.
“I was shopping around for bloodlines that might have worked with Prized Icon, and this is where Squalls came from,” he said. “It turned out a pretty cheap buy, but we lost her a year after Tropical Squall was born.
“It’s a lovely, strong female line further back. There’s the Mr Prospector, Danzig and Halo line that goes back through Almahmoud line in a couple of places, which is what Prized Icon is line-bred to, and there are some superior female lines here.”
“I was shopping around for bloodlines that might have worked with Prized Icon, and this is where Squalls came from...” - Angus Lamont
Squalls, inevitably, may prove a perfect match for Prized Icon, should Tropical Squall go on as she started on Wednesday. Lamont thought the debut particularly good, as did most watching on.
“I thought when they were loading her that she had developed into a lovely type,” he said. “Gooree liked her enough as a type to buy her from us, and they’ve supported Prized Icon well in his initial couple of seasons.”
Prized Icon will stand his fifth season this spring and, with the arrival to Kooringal of Merchant Navy as a fellow dual Group 1-winner, along with fellow new arrival Finance Tycoon, the Lamonts felt it appropriate to reduce his fee from $11,000 (inc GST) to $8800 (inc GST), in lieu of remaining competitive.
Prized Icon | Standing at Kooringal Stud
“We had a couple of new horses joining the roster this year, and with Merchant Navy getting a Group 1 during the autumn (with Royal Merchant), I felt like we needed to reduce Prized Icon slightly, given he hadn’t had a winner yet,” Lamont said. “That was the wisdom behind it because, as anyone knows standing stallions, it can be hard to attract clients back to a horse in their third, fourth and fifth books.
“But this filly (Tropical Squall) will certainly help. It gives us confidence in what we’re doing, and it was really nice to see her stretch out and win like that. There could be some really nice form out of this race and she looks to have above-average ability.”
Pumper breaks his duck
Tropical Squall was the first of two juvenile winners for Tulloch Lodge on Wednesday at Canterbury Park. The second, a Shalaa (Ire) gelding called The Little Pumper, won the corresponding race on the card.
The Little Pumper had already raced three times heading into this maiden, debuting fourth behind Saltaire (Star Turn) in the R. Listed Inglis Nursery back in December before a second and sixth in subsequent starts.
The gelding was ridden on Wednesday by Tim Clark and, from barrier four, he led home Sound The Siren (Mendelssohn {USA}) by 2.16l. It was a convincing win, with the gelding “giving nothing else a chance”, in the words of race caller Darren Flindell.
The Little Pumper was purchased by Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds at the 2022 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale for $120,000, consigned by Valiant Stud.
He was Lot 230, the fifth foal from the Redoute’s Choice mare Sensibility, who was second to Guelph (Exceed And Excel) in the G1 Flight S. when racing for Fairway Thoroughbreds.
The Little Pumper as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
Sensibility is a full sister to the Macau stakes winner Intrusion, and a half-sister to the very useful Running Tall (Stratum). The latter was a winner of the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce S. and was second in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (Colts and Geldings).
The mare had a Castelvecchio filly after The Little Pumper and went to St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) last spring.
