Sun Stud’s Fiorente (IRE) featured in the winner’s list at Canterbury on Wednesday as the sire of eye-catching three year-old colt Black Duke.
A big athletic colt stamped with his sire’s good looks, the Richard Litt trained Black Duke atoned for a luckless debut fifth at Canberra earlier this month to score a stylish win in the 1200m maiden.
Held up for a run in the straight, Black Duke was full of running and when angled into clear ground accelerated hard to the line for Tom Sherry to post a long neck win.
“He’s always shown a lot of promise and I’m just glad he could prove it today,” said Richard Litt.
“We sent him to Canberra thinking it would be an easy win for him and everything went wrong.”
Litt has no immediate plans for Black Duke, but given his pedigree, Classic aspirations this season would be well within his scope.
Retained to race, Black Duke is the first foal of Empress Eleven a placed War Pass (USA) mare from Group II winner Ascorbic, who comes from the prolific Black Type Lemon Ice family that produced last year’s Group I VRC Victoria Derby winner Warning.
Black Duke’s Melbourne Cup winning sire Fiorente, has proven a great success at stud leaving five stakes-winners headed by Group II winners Hawkshot and Stars of Carrum and stands at Sun Stud this spring at a fee of $17,600.
Footnote: Fiorente later made it a winning double when Don't Doubt Dory scored at Sandown.
