The rich Showdown program at Caulfield is designed to showcase the best Victoria has to offer and the day finished off in style with Fiorente 3YO, Florent, producing a withering burst to capture the $430,000 The VOBIS Sires’ Guineas over 1600m.
Trained at Mornington by Tony Noonan and ridden by his son, Jake, Florent loomed threateningly at the 300m mark and hit the line full of running.
“That was a magnificent win from a filly who is by a high class stallion in Fiorente,” Tony Noonan enthused. “You wanted to be on Florent a long way out at Caulfield.
“We targeted the VOBIS Sires’ Guineas for some time with Florent and, let me tell you, I’ve got a bunch of very happy owners.
“We think she’s got Group One level ability and we were planning on running in the Queensland Oaks until they changed all the programming. They’re still revising their winter carnival though, so a trip to Brisbane might still be on the agenda, otherwise we might look at the Mahogany series here in Melbourne.”
Bred by Andrews Breeding & Racing Trust, Florent was offered at the 2018 Gold Coast March Yearling Sale by Clear Mountain Fairview Stud and has since gone on to take her earnings to $284,905.
“Florent is a real looker and the sire produces such great types, that’s why I sent one of my best mares to him last spring. I loved this filly from the first day I saw her,” Tony Noonan adds. “She was a lot more forward as a 2YO than we would have thought and has really trained on a three. Tough as nails too after she backed up from a run at Geelong last Wednesday.
“They (the Fiorentes) are so versatile and just get better with age.”
The multiple Group One winning Fiorente is rapidly becoming a source of miler/middle distance performers with Power Scheme – a stakes winner last season at 2 – finishing third in the Group Three Carbine Club Stakes at Randwick earlier this month, while the stallion’s other stakes horses include last spring’s Melbourne Group Two winners Hawkshot and Stars of Carrum, and Group Three winning filly Moor Gait.
