Sousa Win Boosts NZB RTR Sale
18 September 2008
With New Zealand Bloodstock's Ready to Run Sale catalogue just going off to print, the Sale has received a timely boost following the Gr.3 Spring Stakes (1600m) win of Sousa at Newcastle yesterday.
Sousa (Galileo x Liberty Song, by Last Tycoon) was himself a sale-topping graduate of the Karaka sale ring when bought by Lyndhurst Farm at the 2006 National Weanling Sale for NZ$150,000 from Curraghmore Stud. He's now had five starts for two wins and A$133,000 in prizemoney.
Trained by Peter Snowden for Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Australia, Sousa now has the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) on his agenda before a possible trip to Melbourne for the Victoria Derby.
Rich Hill Stud will offer a three-quarter-brother to Sousa by High Chaparral at Lot 81 of the forthcoming Ready to Run Sale of 2YOs (18 & 19 November), as part of its five-strong draft.
Like Galileo and Montjeu, High Chaparral is a multiple Group 1 winning son of Coolmore Stud's super-sire Sadler's Wells. He shuttles to the Schick family's Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge and has hit the headlines recently with his first crop to race in the Northern Hemisphere already unveiling four stakes-winners to date. Also included in the Sale are three other lots by the six-time Group 1 winner including a colt at Lot 173 from Proteaceae (Kaapstad), making him a half-brother to outstanding Hong Kong-gallopers Win Practitioner and Palette Natural.
Meanwhile Galileo is represented by two lots with Lyndhurst Farm offering a colt from the Centaine mare Heather, and Ascot Farm offering a colt from Seattle Swing, the dam of stakes-placed Yao (Choisir).
Also successful yesterday at Newcastle was 2004 Karaka Premier Sale graduate Biscayne Bay (Stravinsky x Mont Tremblant by St. Jovite), who won the Sharp Office Hurricane Quality (900m) for trainer and part-owner Paul Perry. Offered by Ascot Farm, Perry bid to NZ$110,000 to secure the colt who has now won eight races for A$336,540.
On the same day in Hong Kong, two other NZB Ready to Run graduates saluted, with wins by Wait For Me and Keen Soul at Happy Valley.
In the Class 4 Handicap (1650m) the Dennis Yip-trained Wait For Me (Montjeu x Ecole, by Western Symphony) won by two and a quarter lengths fresh up for owners Horace and Alice Choi. Bred by the Grand Vue Lodge Syndicate, the six year old was bought by Halo Bloodstock for NZ$80,000, and has returned his owners in excess of HK$2.6m.
In Race 4 on the card over 100m, the five-year-old Keen Soul (Spinning World x Ansami, by Ashkalani), offered at the 2005 Sale, was successful for trainer Me Tsui and owners Mr & Mrs Cheung Ying Ho.