THE DEMOLITION MAN

Way West
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

WAY WEST

WAY WEST earned his tag on his big day in one of Australia’s premier “Stallion-makers”, the Blue Diamond Prelude.
In Record Time.

Saturday his daughter, WAYWEST GODDESS did the same to the best of Gauteng’s juveniles in the Ruffian Stakes (Listed).
By four and a quarter.

Just a case of history repeating itself.
DEMOLITION.

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ORATORIO : YOUNG SIRE SENSATION

Oratorio
(Photo: Mungrup Stud)

TRIBUTE TO WAY WEST

The exploits of the emerging Australian sire, Oratorio, have captured the attentions of Australian racegoers to the degree that their premier racing monthly, Bluebloods, has devoted three A5 pages to him in their January 2010 issue.

The article kicks off “with the winners of more than $620 000 (just short of R4 million) including Gr.2 winner, Gold Rocks, the Mungrup Stud-based Oratorio was one of the success stories among first crop sires last season, and he’s continued the work this season, with two further Stakes winners”.

“Oratorio was easily the leading sire of Two-Year-Olds as well as the top Freshman sire in his home state of West Australia, and was also fourth on the national first crop list behind Charge Forward, putting him well ahead of the many high fee and high profile sires from the eastern states” (Editor: this is no mean achievement, given that he’s West Australian-based, where stakes are substantially lower, and his local competition includes the much-heralded Bletchley Park, one of the nation’s tried- and-tested juvenile stallions).

This season, his first crop, (now three), includes the good three-year-old filly Clueless Angel, winner of six of her ten starts including the West Australian Guineas and the Burgess Queen Stakes, and the exciting colt, Waratah’s Secret, unbeaten in his first four, including two Stakes events.

This is an auspicious beginning for the place-getters in what looked like a vintage renewal of one of Australia’s great “stallion makers”, the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr.3,) where Way West proved too good for his quality competition.

Those that’ve visited Way West’s spectacular effort in this event on our website video (www.summerhill.co.za) will recall that it was a “gear from God” on the home bend that kicked him away from his field, following a mid-race stumble which might’ve ruined the prospects of a lesser mortal. Way West’s time in the race beat that of one of the great fillies of modern Australian history, Alinghi, Oratorio flew from behind to get within half length of Way West at the post, and when the timekeepers glanced at their clocks as the horses pulled up, they noted the shattering of the Stakes record.

Also known as the “Demolition Man” to his fans, Way West was tagged a stallion prospect in the making in the aftermath of the Prelude by no less an authority than Peter Keating. With the Blue Diamond (Gr.1) and the world’s richest juvenile event, the Golden Slipper (Gr.1) now in his sights, Way West’s form had Champion trainer, David Hayes contemplating a return from Hong Kong to assist with his mission, but it was not to be. We all know now that a career-crippling foot injury put an end to what would’ve made the son of Danehill a magnet to every Australian stud worth its salt.

As it happens, we can only conjecture at how good he could’ve been, given the chance, but in the end, it may be a blessing for South African breeders. He wouldn’t have been in this country if he’d fulfilled the expectations of his connections, and we must wait now for his first runners to make their debuts before the jury delivers. We’d have to say we fancy his chances a bit, knowing what we saw at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run.

Let’s see what happens at post time.

WAY WEST gets a handshake

Way West (Quentin J Lang)

Yesterday we pointed to the compliment STRONGHOLD received from CESARE’s big run in the Lockinge (Gr1), and today’s story revolves around SANZIRO, third to TAKEOVER TARGET in Sunday’s Krisflyer International Sprint (Gr1) in Singapore.

SANZIRO was beaten just a half length and a nose in the $1 million event, a considerably lesser margin that the 1,5 lengths he went down to Summerhill resident sire, WAY WEST in Australia’s time-honoured “stallion maker”, the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr3).

Way West
Blue Diamond Prelude 2004

Takover Target
Krisflyer International Sprint 2008

EXCEED AND EXCEL : Like Father, Like Son

Exceed And Excel (stallions.com.au)Exceed And Excel’s Group-winning double at Caulfield on Saturday brought him level with the feat of his own sire Danehill’s first season deeds. The Darley Stud stallion has now sired four Stakes winners this season, matching the total number Danehill sired with his first Australian crop in 1993-94. Danehill’s stakes winners that season were Dr Zachary, Danewin, Turtle Bay and the Golden Slipper winner Danzero.

Exceed And Excel had Exceedingly Good and Sugar Babe win black type races in the spring and added to his tally when Wilander and Believe’n’succeed won the respective Gr.3 Blue Diamond Preludes (1100m). Wilander, a colt out of the Gr.2-winning mare Scandinavia, cost Darley’s agent John Ferguson A$625,000 at last year’s William Inglis & Son Australian Easter Yearling Sale. The filly Believe’n’succeed (out of the Gone West mare Arctic Drift) was secured by trainer Mark Kavanagh for A$300,000 from the 2007 Magic Millions on the Gold Coast. Exceed And Excel’s feat was further enhanced by the fact he produced the quinella in both races, with Exceedingly Good and Sugar Babe filling the runner-up spots.

Interestingly, Lee Freedman, the man who helped launch Danehill’s great career by preparing his first three Golden Slipper winners, is the trainer of three of Exceed And Excel’s four stakes winners to date. The stallion now appears to have a vice-like grip on the Gr.1 Blue Diamond Stakes, with his four Stakes winners the top four in the betting for Victoria’s richest two-year-old event. The scary thought is that Exceed And Excel still has another five months to build on his stakes record this season.

Extract from European Bloodstock News 13.02.08

Usual Suspects behind Unusual Talent

The major races in Australasia this weekend at Te Rapa in New Zealand and Caulfield in Australia - were again dominated by Australia’s three main stallion studs: Coolmore, Arrowfield and Darley, writes John Berry.

Numerically, Darley sires had the edge in Stakes results, but the weekend’s best race, the C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield, produced a battle-royal between horses conceived at Coolmore and Arrrowfield. In recent years it has been run at the Club’s flagship venue Caulfield, but in one sense Sandown was more suitable: the long, uphill straight there used to give classy milers a chance of being competitive against the sprinter/milers, making it a truly intriguing weight-for-age contest, won by the likes of Melbourne Cup winners At Talaq and Jeune.

Click here to watch the C.F. Orr Stakes 2008

The on-pace bias often in evidence at Caulfield – and very much in evidence there this weekend – makes the race nowadays more one-dimensional. This year the pattern of racing proved decisive. Shinzig, a son of the late Danehill and winless for 30 months, got the honours in a blanket finish by a short-head, but of similar merit was the run of the luckless, fast-finishing runner-up Niconero, whose sire Danzero is one of the three sons of Danehill currently resident at Arrowfield.

Now that he has his name of the Group One scoresheet, the six-year-old has presumably earned the right to become yet another son of Danehill to stand at stud.

Summerhill has almost single handedly pioneered the importation of quality sons of Danehill into South Africa, and this weekend’s juvenile results showed the value of this policy when Requiem, the first of these imports, produced his first two winners in three days.

This year’sWaikato Sprint was principal among the big races won by a Darley-sired runner on Saturday: New Zealand’s champion mare Seachange, a daughter of Cape Cross, used it to increase her tally of Group One victories to seven. Reassuringly for our customers, Summerhill’s National Yearling Sales draft includes a smashing colt by Cape Cross, acquired as a weanling from Darley with all the pedigree trappings that go with the Darley stock.

Click here to watch the Waikato Sprint 2008.

The Waikato Sprint was one of two Group One races on the cards at Te Rapa, the winners of both of which were won by the offspring of Darley Stallions. The other one, the International Stakes was won by the Fantastic Light three-year-old Mission Critical. Bred by Darley, this colt boasts a superb lineage, no better though than the beautifully bred winner of the Blue Diamond Prelude (fillies) on Saturday, Believe ‘n Succeed.

Click here to watch the International Stakes 2008.

When considering the success of stallions, it is unwise to overlook the assistance which popular sires are given by the mares that they cover, as the backgrounds of both Shinzig and Mission Critical remind us.

It was a similar case in both versions of the Blue Diamond Preludes, a pair of Group Three events (for colts & fillies) which serve as the main lead-up races for the Blue Diamond Stakes, Melbourne’s principal juvenile race. Remarkably, young Darley sire Exceed and Excel sired the quinella in both heats. While he is obviously a hugely promising stallion, he has had plenty of help from his mares.

Quite amazingly, one of Summerhill’s most endearing physical specimens for the “Nationals” is a Fantastic Light half sister to the winner of the Fillies version of the Prelude, out of the Gone West mare, Arctic Drift. A great opportunity for investors to tap into an internationally celebrated family.

Click here to view Summerhill Yearlings for National Yearling Sale