A journey that started 11 years ago resulted today with victory in the $500,000 Inglis Dash at Flemington for untapped 3YO filly Capriccio.
It all began at Inglis’ Australian Weanling Sale at the old Newmarket site in 2010 when Darren Dance’s Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock teamed up with the Gereaux family’s Bungan Street Thoroughbreds to buy a Lonhro filly for $80,000.
They raced the filly as Lonhspresso – she won four of her 15 starts including two at Stakes level – before deciding to breed with her.
Today her daughter Capriccio, trained by Daniel Bowman, won the Inglis Dash at just her fourth career start.
Capriccio (I Am Invincible) realised $300,000 at the Premier Yearling Sale through Dance’s Esker Lodge, purchased by Bowman and Dance’s ATB, who wanted to stay in the filly.
“Daniel bought her and asked if the breeders wanted to stay in so we took a share each and Daniel sold the rest down through his client base,’’ Dance said.
“It’s good for our brand to be able to breed a good horse and sell it through Inglis. We’ve given all our yearlings this year to Inglis to sell at Premier so the timing couldn’t be any better either.
“We’ve been flat strap all week at Oaklands for inspections, it’s been off the charts, so fingers crossed everyone gets some good results the next three days in the sale ring.’’
Esker Lodge will offer 12 yearlings at Premier, which begins at 10am tomorrow.
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Shannon Gereaux couldn’t believe it as he watched today’s race unfold.
“I could hardly speak afterwards. I was shaking, I think everyone was,’’ a thrilled Gereaux said.
“It’s a big thrill to have bred a filly to win a race like the Inglis Dash. Thanks to Inglis, the race series is great to be involved in, it’s such a good advertisement for the company and the industry.’’
Winning trainer Bowman added: “We picked this race out a long way to kick off in and we’ll get her to Adelaide now.
“She’d improved a lot during her spell, trialling up really well at home so I knew she’d run a really big race. I thought she could run a nice fourth or fifth and I would have been really happy with that, but apparently not!
“Thanks to Inglis, this prizemoney is unbelievable.’’
The Inglis Dash has a proud tradition of producing G1 winners – Capriccio will be out to emulate former recent winners such as Nature Strip and Hellbent to progress on to win at the highest level.
