‘Couldn’t get much better’: Saintly Dancer caps strong spring

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The G1 1000 Guineas victory of Saintly Dancer (NZ) (St Mark’s Basilica {Fr}) on Saturday gave her connections plenty to cheer about. It caps an amazing three weeks for First Light Racing, who have won a Group race on each of the past three Saturdays.

Her vendor, Wentwood Grange, have had a similar run of success this spring with five stakes class 3-year-olds from the farm.

“You couldn't ask for it to be going much better. Three big stakes wins in consecutive weeks is unreal,” First Light Racing’s Tim Wilson said.

Saintly Dancer began the run when racing to a six-length victory in the G2 Edward Manifold Stakes on October 3. On October 10, Surfin’ Bird (The Autumn Sun) won the G3 Ladies Day Vase, and now Saintly Dancer is a Group 1 winner.

“We are over the moon with the filly yesterday. She won on a rain affected track last start and she’s gone and produced it on a really good surface yesterday.

“We were confident that she'd be able to produce it on a firmer deck like she did yesterday, but until we saw it, we weren’t one hundred percent sure.”

A Group 1 achievement unlocked

The G1 1000 Guineas has an amazing record in the past 21 years since the outstanding Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice) won the race. Her daughter Stay With Me (Street Cry {Ire}), who also won the 1000 Guineas, is the dam of Saturday’s Kosciusko winner Chains Of Love and Listed winner Waltz On By, both by I Am Invincible.

The 2023 winner Joliestar (Zoustar) added four more Group 1 victories following her win in the race and was third in Saturday’s G1 The Everest behind Tempted (Street Boss {USA}) and Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}).

For Wentwood Grange, to add their name to the honour’s list for such a historic race has been the icing on a brilliant spring cake.

“It’s been unbelievable with our 3-year-olds. Six black-type horses and five of them are ones we’ve sold through the ring,” Wentwood Grange’s Dean Hawkins said.

“We’ve been very fortunate and our 2-year-olds have started off well with Nonu placing in the Breeder’s Plate.”

Nonu (NZ) (Anamoe) debuted in the G3 Breeders’ Plate in Sydney, running third. He was bought by Bjorn Baker Racing, Ridgmont, and Clarke Bloodstock (FBAA) for NZ$600,000 from Wentwood Grange’s 2026 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale draft.

But it’s Saintly Dancer leading the charge of the 3-year-olds off the farm, even this early in the season.

Saintly Dancer has plenty of growing to do

This is only Ciaron Maher-trained Saintly Dancer’s first campaign, having run second on debut as a late season juvenile in July, before winning her maiden at start number in early August. From there, she’s had four starts in stakes company, running sixth in the Listed Atlantic Jewel Stakes, second in the G2 1000 Guineas Prelude, then the two victories.

“I've wanted her in the paddock probably the last two months, to be fair. This whole preparation we’ve been saying to the owners that if you look at her physically, this is all a bit of a bonus,” Wilson said.

“She can have a good spell now. What we've seen from her so far is the tip of the iceberg.

“She weighs 435 kilos. She has a lovely frame, but you look at her front on and she almost disappears, she’s very narrow. It’s all ahead of her. She's got the structure to her, but if you give her a really good break and more time to grow and mature, she can put on 60 or 70 kilos in eight weeks.

“She’s going to be a terrific filly once she really furnishes for her owners. I can't believe she's done what she’s done so far.”

It's a long way until Saintly Dancer heads to the broodmare paddock, but she will be highly sought after as a prospect given the race's record of producing outstanding broodmares.

Overlooked at the sales from a small draft

Wentwood Grange sold Saintly Dancer to First Light Racing and Ciaron Maher Bloodstock for $100,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“We always sell some horses in Australia, mostly to help our brand and marketing and to try and get the horses over into Australia. We've done that for the last 10 years, and had good success with it, both on the racetrack and off the racetrack,” Hawkins said.

“She was quite a solid filly, and we felt she would suit that market. It sounds like she still needs to fill out and furnish a bit.”

It’s the lack of furnishing off a lovely frame that has First Light Racing so excited about Saintly Dancer.

“She was a gorgeous yearling. We bought her off Wentwood Grange, who are a terrific New Zealand-based farm. They only had a draft of about three horses at Magic Millions last year. We were quite lucky as she was in the Chester Barn, right out the back,” Wilson said.

“It was a huge catalogue, I think 1100 horses in book one and with her being from a draft of three, I did feel that she was a horse that slipped under the radar a little bit.

“She was a filly that really takes your eye, and myself and my team who's led by Tyla Becker, we were really taken by her as a yearling, and thought she might be one that could get under the guard of a few.

“She was by a new stallion in St Mark’s Basilica and she was early, Lot 23 or so, so we got lucky and got her for a really affordable price. She’s done a great job.”

Part of the appeal was a familiarity with her pedigree. St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) was crowned Champion European 3-Year-Old after adding four more Group 1 wins to his juvenile G1 Dewhurst Stakes victory. He's a son of Siyouni (Fr) from the Pivotal (GB) sire line.

“We've had a bit of success with Siyouni previously. We had a stakes-winning filly called See You In Spring, and one of our key clients at the farm, Aristia Park, had a couple of mares in foal to St Marks. We always liked him and we looked favourably upon him with the success we'd had with Siyouni.”

See You In Spring (Siyouni {Fr}) won the Listed Without Fear Stakes at two.

“It was probably just the perfect storm really, a nice young stallion you were prepared to take a gamble with, and a gorgeous filly.”

Casting the net wide with matings

Wentwood Grange is run by the three sons of Des and Jan Hawkins, being Leigh, Sean and Dean. And they all have input into the mating plans every season, which means each mare is unlikely to return to the same stallion multiple times.

“That is the joy of what we do as a farm. We don't have that many share holdings (in stallions), so we always just try and breed to what we like. We have our own genetic model that we follow and we try to work out what will suit each mare. Every year we look at the foals because we’re doing it all ourselves, so we can refine each mating,” Hawkins said.

“There's four of us with Dad and a couple of brothers (all having input). You have to learn give and take. There's some you win. One of my brothers is an accountant so he’s always got the money side of it covered, making sure we’re not over mating a mare.

“My brother Sean does most of the walk ins, so he obviously sees the stallions regularly. I'm working with the weanlings day in day out, so I see a lot more of the personalities and those traits, and then we've obviously got the theories that we try and follow. And hopefully it works out.

“It's a good balance between us.”

Saintly Dancer was her fourth live foal, and she went to Sword Of State the year following to produce an unnamed 2-year-old filly. She missed to Shamexpress (NZ) the next year and was covered by Derryn in 2025.

“Unfortunately, we lost the Derryn foal. She was covered on Friday night, and we ended up sending her to Savaglee, a first season sire we’re fortunate enough to have a share in,” Hawkins said.

“Saintly Dancer threw more to the stallion I would say. Mum's a good size, she’s 16.2 and a half, a big So You Think mare. There's a double off cross of Sadler's Wells back in the page and she had quite a grey fleck through her coat, with that whitish tail always, so maybe she’s thrown a bit to that.”

So You Think (NZ) now has three Group 1 winners as a damsire, with G1 Golden Slipper winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane) and Puchkine (Fr) (Starspangledbanner) being the others.

More to come for both farm and syndicator

Wentwood Grange are busy with the foaling season and are beginning to prepare for the 2027 yearling sales.

“We've got six horses for Magic Millions (Gold Coast Yearling Sale) and then we've got three for (Inglis) Classic, and a couple for (Inglis) Easter, and then obviously we’ll have a large group for Karaka,” Hawkins said.

For First Light Racing, they’ll have plenty more to watch over the spring, even if Wilson gets his way and Saintly Dancer heads to the paddock.

“Saintly Dancer and Surfin’ Bird are waving the flag at the moment for us. Spring is a tough time. You have to make sure you’ve got the right horses for these races because of how competitive it is,” Wilson said.

“Surfin’ Bird either goes to the Empire Rose in a fortnight - we are waiting to get a feel on how that race takes shape - or she can go to the Five Diamonds up in Sydney. She’s got a lovely path both in Melbourne or Sydney.”

“The Instructor and Abounding are both in the paddock, and we’ve got a really nice team up in Queensland. He’s Tru Blue was a bit stiff to run second yesterday and Brindavan’s a really nice horse.

“Our next lot have just turned two and we’re looking forward to seeing who steps out. We’ve got a Snitzel filly with Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young that we bought out of Magic Millions at the start of the year that I think is better than average.”

A half-sister to G3 Red Roses Stakes winner Aitch Two Oh (Headwater) who also won twice at Listed level, the unnamed 2-year-old filly cost First Light Racing and Matt Houldsworth Bloodstock $400,000 from Baramul Stud’s draft.

Whatever the rest of the season brings for both First Light Racing and Wentwood Grange, it’ll be pretty hard to do better than having a Group 1 winning 3-year-old filly on the books.