Thorn Park Lost but Not Forgotten

The success of sire Thorn Park continues to flow with the weekend’s stakes victory of his son Sacred Park (NZ) (Thorn Park) in the Listed $70,000 Manuka Doctor Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) at Ellerslie.

Sacred Park (NZ) winning the Listed Manuka Doctor Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie.

The loss of Windsor Park Stud’s Thorn Park after only eight crops has been unfortunate with his progeny delivering exceptional results on the race track, including five-time Group 1 Ocean Park (NZ), with Sacred Park becoming his 18th stakes winner.

The Tony Pike and Mark Donoghue trained Sacred Park was able to finish the best for a hard-earned victory over a small but select field of three-year-olds at his third start.

Ridden by Leith Innes, the Karaka graduate settled behind the pace in a slowly run race over 1400m. Entering the straight, Innes hit the front soon after cornering and the pair was able to fight off all challengers to win by three-quarters-of-a-length from fellow Karaka graduate Burnt Orange (NZ) (Mossman).

Sacred Park came into the weekend’s feature event having won on debut as a two-year-old in May of this year and had run third at his seasonal reappearance earlier this month at Taupo.

He is owned by Raffles Thoroughbred Racing, owners of last season’s Group 1 Doncaster Handicap winner Sacred Falls (NZ) (O’Reilly) along with Mr E Hwang, the earner of over $1.6 million to date.  Saturday’s win puts Sacred Park’s current earnings at $57,450.

“The Two Thousand Guineas will be his target this preparation like most three-year-olds this time of year. He will have one more run leading into it but we are not sure where that will be at the moment,” confirmed co-trainer Tony Pike.

 “Obviously the Two Thousand Guineas comes around quickly so the better three-year-olds have to get the racing into them to get down to Christchurch.

“He will have a short spell after Riccarton then maybe head towards the Bayer Classic and I think he is going to turn into a nice Derby horse later on.

“He is a big horse and has got plenty to learn. He is not what you would call a professional racehorse at the moment but he has got the raw talent to continue to improve with racing.

 “He was a lovely yearling, he was a big and strong colt. I think we had to beat off John Bary who was the under bidder, John thought he looked very much like Jimmy Choux (also by Thorn Park) as a yearling. He was just a really nice type of yearling with the size and the strength to turn into a nice horse which he has done.”

Mapperley Stud enjoyed a profitable day at Ellerslie as they sold both Sacred Park and Listed Soliloquy Stakes winner Spellbinder at the 2012 Karaka Select Sale. Sacred Park was purchased by Raffles Dancers (NZ) Pty Ltd for $110,000.

Bred by Harvey Digby Bloodstock Ltd, Sacred Park is the third winner from three to race for his dam Dosh (Danske), a sister to Group 3 Lowland Stakes winner Molta (Danske).