Shamrocker Shakes Aussie Juveniles
8 March 2010
Karaka graduate Shamrocker beat her Australian rivals at their own game when she found plenty in the Group 2 VRC Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday.
The juvenile O'Reilly filly destined for the VRC Crown Oaks did not get any favours during the A$300,000 event when asked to travel three wide facing the breeze after drawing the outside barrier in the nine horse field.
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| �O'Reilly, the sire of Shamrocker |
Glen Boss rode the filly to victory in her Sandown maiden just three weeks earlier and this time the pair put pay to a Group quality field.
Into the home straight Shamrocker (O'Reilly x Bohemian Blues, by Blues Traveller) quickly became prominent and immediately challenged race favourite Willow Creek (Tale of the Cat) who had kicked strongly from a handy position.
Shamrocker eventually ground her rival into submission to score by a short neck, no mean feat considering Willow Creek had finished just a length off Star Witness (Starcraft) at her last start when fourth in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m). Others in the beaten brigade included Redoute's Choice and Manhattan Rain's sibling Echoes of Heaven (Encosta De Lago), and Bradbury's Luck and Murtajill's sibling Thegreatandthegood (Rock of Gibraltar).
Trained by Danny O'Brien at Flemington, Shamrocker's majority share-holder is Dato Yap Kim San's Raffles Farm (50%), whose bloodstock interests are managed in New Zealand by Bruce Sherwin.
Raffles Farm has developed a quality young broodmare band in Cambridge over the past 18 months and has racing interests throughout Australasia. Many of these were sourced from Karaka including Shamrocker who was purchased by Danny O'Brien for $65,000 at the 2009 Karaka Select Sale.
With earnings of A$200,000 thus far, Shamrocker heads to the paddock with a firm target, the Group 1 VRC Oaks, during Melbourne's Spring Carnival.
Trainer Danny O'Brien commented, "We've always had hopes she'd be a nice Oaks filly in the spring. She's a big, long lanky staying O'Reilly filly so that's certainly given us a lot of promise of what she might do after a win like that."
In winning the Group 2 event Shamrocker joins Linky Dink (Group 1 TJ Smith Classic), Rockdale (Group 1 TJ Smith Classic), Darci Brahma (Group 1 TJ Smith Classic), Alizes (Group 2 Magic Night Stakes) and Group 1 AJC Oaks bound My Emotion (Group 3 VRC Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes) as New Zealand-breds who have claimed juvenile Group glory in Australia in the past five seasons.