Full of Spirit Australian Oaks Bound

A brilliant performance from three-year-old filly Full of Spirit at Randwick on Saturday stamped the daughter of Flying Spur as a filly destined for bigger things as she put away her rivals with style in the A$125,000 Group 3 Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m).

Trained by Roger James and ridden by leading New Zealand jockey James McDonald, Full of Spirit (Flying Spur x Imposingly by Zabeel) settled well near the back of the field with McDonald biding his time.

Commencing his run at the 600 metres, McDonald brought Full of Spirit around the field on the turn and she claimed the lead at the 250 metre mark and cruised away under a soft ride to win the Group 3 by a comfortable one length margin.

Raced by Haunui Bloodstock Ltd & Hylton Mackley, Haunui Farm's General Manager Mark Chitty was delighted with Full of Spirit's first stakes win.

"She is a very tough horse this filly," commented Mark. "She has tested every person who has worked with her from breaking her in to pre-training and now in her racing career.

"She won over a mile in the Manawatu on 31 March and the improvement we saw from her in that race was incredible. James McDonald rode her that day and was very impressed and full credit to him and Roger James as they convinced us to send her to Sydney to target this race off the back of that performance.

"She has always had the ability, we saw that on debut, but she has taken a few races to learn her trade but she is flying now. We are going to press on to the Group 1 Australian Oaks this weekend."

Full of Spirit is the 85th stakes winner for her sire Flying Spur and the 91st stakes winner for her broodmare sire Zabeel. In a remarkable season, Zabeel is also the damsire of the superstar filly Atlantic Jewel, winner of the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes on Saturday, and current Group 1 winners Silent Achiever, Planet Rock and Southern Speed.

Zabeel currently heads both the New Zealand and Australian Broodmare Sires' Premierships by earnings for the 2011/12 season.

Bred by Mr P Newsom, Full of Spirit was purchased by Roger James from Westbury Stud at New Zealand Bloodstock's 2010 Karaka Premier Sale for $275,000. She has now won three of her nine career starts for over $100,000 in stakes.

Haunui Farm and Westbury Stud will both be offering quality drafts at the upcoming National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale (7-9 May) with the progeny of their respective resident sires.

Haunui Farm will be offering 24 weanlings, 16 of which are by their stallions including Booming's sire Don Eduardo, Elusive City, sire of the exciting three-year-olds Xanadu, Adamantium and Now You Know, and Europe's 2010 Champion First Season Sire Iffraaj.

Westbury Stud will be offering 12 weanlings, five by their freshman sires Red Giant and Swiss Ace, as well as progeny by Captain Rio and Librettist, sire of the smart two-year-old Jimmer Time.

Catalogues for New Zealand Bloodstock's National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale (7-9 May) is now available. To view it online, click here. The catalogue can also be viewed on the new iPad application which can be downloaded by clicking here.