Stakes Double for In-Form Elusive City

Former shuttle sire Elusive City is enjoying one of his best seasons at stud in New Zealand and has had another good weekend with Famous Seamus (NZ) and Luck of Smiling (NZ) winning stakes races in Australia and Macau.

Karaka graduates also celebrated a stakes double at the Macau meeting with the Darci Brahma three-year-old Sunshine Kingdom (ex Concert Party) winning the M$550,000 Listed Macau Lisboa Challenge (1400m).

Famous Seamus has won two stakes races in Australia this season

The Noel Mayfield-Smith trained Famous Seamus (ex Clinique) was already a stakes winner having won the Listed Lightning Stakes at Randwick in the spring and took his second stakes victory in Saturday’s A$80,000 Listed Hinkler Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm.

The four-year-old produced a determined performance in the race, coming from back in the field where he was brought across heels by jockey Glenn Colless into clear running and closed steadily down the straight, getting up to win by three-quarters-of-a-length.

Only lightly raced, the gelding has won six of his 16 starts and has earned A$260,250 for his owners Mr J Simpson and Mrs J D Simpson.

Famous Seamus was bred by Keltern Stud & Trelawney Thoroughbreds and was offered by Trelawney Stud at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2010 Karaka Select Sale where he was purchased by Flagtown Pty Ltd for $70,000.

The Macau owned and raced Luck of Smiling completed the stakes double for Elusive City with victory in the M$1 million Listed Macau Chairman’s Challenge (1200m).

The M C Tam trained five-year-old (ex Sunshine Gold), like Famous Seamus, had already tasted stakes success having won the Macau Sprint Trophy in July last year and has been a solid performer for his owner K. M. Ng having won 12 of his 21 career starts.

Luck of Smiling has also placed on a further seven occasions, meaning that he has only finished unplaced twice in his entire career. He has also won all of his last four starts on the track which date back to November last year.

Bred by Don & Wendy Pye, Luck of Smiling was purchased by Hawkes Racing from Haunui Farm at New Zealand Bloodstock's 2009 Karaka Festival Sale for $40,000.

Elusive City celebrated his 25th stakes winner when tough kiwi mare Xanadu won the Group 1 NZ Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes just under 10 days ago. Shuttling to Haunui Farm from 2004 to 2010, Elusive City is the sire of a number of smart stakes winners including Ahdashim, Adamantium, Hinemoa, Jetset Lad, So Elusive and Returntosender.

The Y.Y.Choy and Y.T.Lam trained Sunshine Kingdom made it a stakes double for Karaka at the Macau meeting when taking his second career win and his first at stakes level in the Listed Macau Lisboa Challenge.

The three-year-old son of Darci Brahma has only had four starts in Macau with his worst result coming on debut where he ran a credible fourth place.

Sunshine Kingdom was bred by Peter and Philip Vela and was purchased by Mr Kar Fai Lee from Kilgravin Lodge at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2011 Ready to Run Sale for $24,000. 

He is the ninth stakes winner for his sire Darci Brahma who has a number of promising young horses racing in Asia including the Michael Freedman trained Super Junior in Singapore and the John Size trained Hypersonic in Hong Kong who is unbeaten in two starts.