Trapeze Artist again as Colleano gets up at Pakenham

Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos

It’s early days when it comes to the sires’ premiership, but if Trapeze Artist has started as he means to go on, it could be a glittering season for the son of Snitzel.

On Wednesday at Pakenham, he landed his 14th career winner when the gelding Colleano, second-up for Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, won the second race of the meeting, a 1200-metre sprint for the 3-year-olds. It was Trapeze Artist’s sixth seasonal winner.

Colleano, however, was the third good result for Trapeze in almost as many days, following on from the feats of Griff in the G2 Stutt S. last Friday night, and then Facile at Warwick Farm on Monday. The Widden sire has rocketed to the top of the Australian Second Season Sire premiership by earnings, just edging out The Autumn Sun.

At this point, it’s a tight race. Trapeze Artist, courtesy of Griff, leads The Autumn Sun only narrowly, with Prized Icon, Justify (USA) and Brave Smash (Jpn) all sitting above the $500,000 mark in progeny earnings. He’s also at the head of affairs when it comes to Leading Second Season Sire by stakes wins (two).

At Widden Stud on Wednesday, Matt Comerford was on-hand for Colleano’s win on the Pakenham synthetic. Like most, he was cheering the good run they’re having with the 9-year-old Trapeze Artist.

“He’s an incredibly exciting stallion with what we’ve seen from his first crop, and those results that are starting to fly through for him now,” Comerford said, speaking to The Thoroughbred Report. “We saw it with Griff on Friday night in the Stutt S. and with Facile winning quite easily on Monday. And now with Colleano today (Wednesday).”

To date, Trapeze Artist has had 51 runners to the track. Alongside Griff, his stakes horses include Facile, who was second to Learning To Fly (Justify {USA}) in the G2 Reisling S., and Introducing, who was second in the Listed The Rosebud. Flying Trapeze was second in the Listed The Phoenix, while Artistica was second in the Listed Dequetteville S.

His promising horses have included Disneck, and Tumbling who was fourth in the G3 Kindergarten S. All of these are first-crop progeny for Trapeze Artist off his debut $88,000 (inc GST) service fee.

“It’s really no surprise to us that these horses are coming through,” Comerford said. “We’ve always had a lot of faith in the horse. We’ve supported him, as have the breeders, and he covered his biggest book of mares last year. He was very much in the premiership mix with his first crop, but you only need to look at how well he profiled himself through his 3- and 4-year-old career to suggest that from his progeny as well.”

Comerford reminds us that Trapeze Artist had more 2-year-old stakes performers in his first crop last season than Snitzel at the same career point, which is a powerful comparison this early in the piece.

“We know what Snitzel has gone on to do, don’t we?” Comerford said. “Trapeze definitely profiles like they’re going to get better at three.”

There is little room for criticising Snitzel as a stallion, but if you had to, it could only be that he has taken a while to get going as a sire of sires. Today, he has some formidable sons at stud, the most accomplished of which is probably Russian Revolution and Shamus Award, not forgetting the newbies like Best Of Bordeaux, In The Congo, Wild Ruler, Showtime, Invader and Sooboog. Trapeze Artist is charging up the rigging.

“There is definitely an opportunity for a son of Snitzel to put his hand up, and I wouldn’t be surprised, with the five stakes performers he’s had already, if Trapeze Artist will comfortably go to some great heights for him,” Comerford said.

The Sienna influence

Three-year-old Colleano won his Pakenham race on Wednesday by a short head. It was a good contest with the Rosemont-owned Quickster (Shamus Award), the pair leading home the third-placed Hypeman (Dundeel {NZ}).

Colleano was ridden by Ben Melham, who also piloted the gelding when he was third on debut at Geelong on August 25.

“I thought he was really tough,” Comerford said of Colleano. “I remember him as a yearling. A good friend of ours and a client of the farm’s, Mitch Lowe of Viva Racing, who does an awesome job, is in the ownership so we’re thrilled with this result. Mitch has some really good breeding partnerships and, interestingly, he sent a mare to Trapeze Artist last year. He’s had a lot of faith in the horse so it’s a credit to him.”

Colleano was bred by Gerry Harvey at Westbury Stud in New Zealand. As a yearling, he was sent with the Westbury draft to the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where he was one of the 30 by Trapeze Artist in the catalogue.

He was well-bought by Mick Price Racing & Breeding in alliance with Viva Racing, the group paying $150,000. Trapeze Artist's average at that sale was $263,519.

Colleano was the 10th foal from the vintage producer Piazza Del Campo, a General Nediym mare that belonged to Gerry Harvey. The gelding is a half-brother to the dual stakes winner Palazzo Pubblico (Conatus), while the second dam in this pedigree is My Sienna (Weasel Clause).

My Sienna won the G2 Edward Manifold S. and G2 Wakeful S. before running second to the Ingham-raced Tributes (Quest For Fame {GB}) in the G1 VRC Oaks.

“We saw Colleano at Magic Millions last year, as we saw all the Trapeze Artists,” Comerford said. “He was a lovely yearling. Mick Kent and Mick Price selected him with Viva and away they went. He’s not without some improvement by the look of him today (Wednesday), but he accounted for himself really impressively.”

Piazza Del Campo died in December. Her final foal was an All Too Hard colt who was passed in at this year’s Magic Millions National Yearling Sale for $55,000. He is un-named but has just finished pre-training with Luke Morgan and will head to a Sydney stable shortly.