Dual Group I winning colt Ole Kirk has been officially retired to Vinery Stud following his unplaced run in Saturday’s Group I VRC Australian Guineas, while last year’s Golden Slipper winner Farnan is continuing with his autumn campaign which took him to Gosford on Monday morning for a b arrier trial.
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained son of Not a Single Doubt was having his second trial back and led all the way to win by more than a length over Kim Waugh’s very handy mare Great News.
He ran the quickest time of the five heats over the 1000m and covered his last 600m in 0:34.74.
For Ole Kirk it’ s the end of the road in terms of his racing career, but as a superbly bred dual Group I winning son of Written Tycoon from the family of Black Caviar and All Too Hard, the sky’s the limit for him as a stud prospect.
“It would have been nice to go out on a win, but these things happen in racing,” Peter Orton told Andrew Bensley when interviewed on Monday morning.
“He has a super pedigree and he’s a lovely horse. He’s the perfect product in terms of what we look for in a stallion.”
The second highest priced yearling at the 2019 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale when selling for $675,000, Ole Kirk was trained throughout his career by Team Hawkes and made a winning debut in the Listed VRC Talindert Stakes.
Group I placed at two, he was the dominant spring three year-old winning both the Group I ATC Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas and retires with earnings of $2.1million.
