Linton Completes Hot Season for NZB Ready to Run Sale

A freakish performance from New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale graduate Linton has seen the grey son of super-sire Galileo earn his Group 1 winning title when bursting to victory in Saturday’s A$1.4 million Group 1 StradbrokeHandicap (1400m).

The win caps off a brilliant season for the NZB Ready to Run Sale which has produced three Group 1 winners since February – Sangster, Nashville, and now Linton – three of the Sale’s 15 individual stakes winners in Australasia and Asia this season.

Linton will now spell ahead of Cox Plate campaign in the spring

Trained by John Sadler, Linton (Galileo x Our Heather) came into the Stradbroke in excellent form having won two consecutive stakes races in South Australia, and produced the performance of his career to overcome a quality field including the likes of Buffering, Streama, Solzhenitsyn, Your Song and Epaulette.

From the horror gate of 16, jockey Nicholas Hall produced a gem of a ride on Linton, taking him to the tail of the field in transit and electing to wait for a gap in the field rather than taking the six-year-old wide on the turn.

Hall‘s decision proved the winning of the race as a gap came on the rails and Linton did the rest, immediately accelerating and running down the whole field, including the breakaway leader and star sprinter Buffering, to win Queensland’s feature sprint race by three-quarters of a length.

Previously raced by Lloyd Williams, Linton was sold 18 months ago and was purchased by his current owners Estrela Energia, Mr M B Talty, Mr M P Talty and Mr G Talty.

The win brought up a milestone for the Malua Racing partnership of head trainer John Sadler and Troy Corstens, as Linton became the first Group 1 winner for the partnership which began two-and-a-half years ago.

“He has been a great performer for us and we are very lucky to have a horse of his calibre in our stable,” commented Corstens.

“It was a great effort from the horse on Saturday, he needed a bit of luck in running but you need that to win Group 1 races.

“The horse has done well in the past over a trip but John (Sadler) always questioned him as a stayer as he believed that he was a more sprinter/miler type and that’s where the idea for the Stradbroke came into play.

“We will give him three weeks off now and look to the Cox Plate in the spring. He ran in the race last year but he really is a different horse now so we are keen for another go at the race.”

Linton has been a very good performer during his career though many of his best track performances have come over a mile right up to 2400 metres. His racing career includes wins in the Group 2 Alister Clark Stakes (1600m) and Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes (2400m) and placings in the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m), Group 1 BMW Stakes (2400m) and Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m).

Given his achievements in races over a trip and the fact that he upstaged such a strong field of specialist sprinters only adds to the significance of the win for both Linton and his trainer John Sadler.

Linton was bred by Standard 2080 Ltd and is a graduate of New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2008 Ready to Run Sale. Offered by Lyndhurst Farm, he was purchased by Rogerson Bloodstock for $275,000 for his former owner Lloyd Williams.

Linton has won seven of his 24 career starts for over A$2 million in stakes.

Linton is the second Group 1 winner for Lyndhurst Farm this season with the stud also selling Historian who won the Group 1 Thorndon Mile.