Super interesting racing in Australia on Saturday with three brand new Group I winners at Flemington, a Japanese winner of the $10million Golden Eagle and a broodmare sire on fire at Flemington with three stakes-winners – so let’s take a look at the pedigrees.
So that broodmare sire on fire… that would be Fastnet Rock. He sired the dams of three Group winners at Flemington on Saturday in Queen of the Ball (I Am Invincible), Cause for Concern (Worthy Cause) and Amazonian Lass (More Than Ready (USA), who is likely to back up in the Group I VRC Oaks next Saturday.
Fastnet Rock is currently the leading broodmare sire by winners and stakes-winners in the country this season.
The $2million Group I VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) was won by progressive colt Ozzmosis, emulating the success of his sire Zoustar, who won the race in 2013, read about him here.
Ozzmosis is the sixth G1 winner for Zoustar and is the second G1 winner among eight SW’s for Darci Brahma as a broodmare sire. He carries a 4 x 3 double cross of Danehill, which features in so many offspring of Zoustar, who is one stallion that seems to tolerate the double up to good effect in a consistent way. He has sired 43 SW’s in total and 26 of them have the double Danehill, four of them G1 winners.
One of the most interesting things about Ozzmosis is his female family which traces back to a mare called Getting There, which we highlighted in this story (read it here) in early September that regarded two new stakes-winners in the family in Griff and Star Patrol. Ozzmosis won his first stakes race two weeks later to make three exciting new horses for the family.
Two of them Griff and Ozzmosis are now G1 winners and Star Patrol will bid to do likewise in the Champions Sprint next Saturday.
The $2million Group I VRC Victoria Derby (2500m) was won by Riff Rocket, a talented gelding that has only finished once worse than first or second in seven starts, read about him here.
Riff Rocket is the eighth G1 winner and first in Australia for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (USA), whose US fee for 2024 is $US50,000. He is also the first stakes-winner and first G1 winner as a broodmare sire for Fastnet Rock’s more than useful son Smart Missile.
He has an interesting pedigree picture being from a very successful old Australian female family tracing back to 1945 Melbourne Cup winner Rainbird, who is his eighth dam. Subsequent generations were bred to speed sires like Todman, Crown Jester and Marauding with the stamina pretty much bred out of the family until the introduction of American Pharoah, a robust, tough dirt tracker that was a Champion 2YO, Champion 3YO Triple Crown winner and Breeders Cup Classic winner. He was always going to get a G1 winner here and it’s probably not surprising that it’s the winner of this race which demands toughness from it’s winners almost above all other attributes.
The $1million VRC Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) was won in spectacular front running fashion by Pride of Jenni, read about her here.
Pride of Jenni is the 20th SW for Pride of Dubai and is his third G1 winner joining the Irish bred Dubai Honour (IRE) and Bella Nipotina, who claimed some big scalps when winning the $3million Giga Kick Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday. She is also the 122nd SW and 25th G1 winner for champion NZ sire O’Reilly as a broodmare sire.
O’Reilly mares are gold, whatever way you look at them. He runs at 6.6% SW to runner as a broodmare sire which is better than a lot of our current so called leading sires produce with their actual progeny! The Street Cry x O’Reilly nick has had a good degree of success with 12 SW’s from 132 runners running at 9% SW to runner with Pride of Jenni the second G1 winner joining Belclare.
For the first time since it’s inception in 2019, the $10million ATC Golden Eagle (1500m) for four year-olds was won by a foreign trained horse with lightly raced Japanese bred stallion Obamburumai taking the prize, read about him here.
Obamburumai is by US bred Group I winning miler Discreet Cat, who competed for Godolphin and stood at their Kentucky base before being switched to Japan in 2017 where he stood until his death earlier this year at age 20. He has sired 38 stakes-winners worldwide at a strike rate of 3.8% SW to runner with five of them G1 winners. Only three of those stakes-winners have come from his latter years in Japan with Obamburumai the best of them.
It wouldn’t be a Japanese pedigree without the presence of Sunday Silence and he’s there prominently with Obamburumai being from a daughter of Deep Impact tracing back to the US family of Unbridled’s Song, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner that shuttled to Australia for Arrowfield for three seasons (1997 – 1999) before his star rose dramatically in the US where he became a highly successful sire.
The Japanese have had tremendous success with the Storm Cat x Sunday Silence nick in varying forms, the nick producing 197 SW’s including 32 G1 winners highlighted by superstars Contrail, Almond Eye and Lives Only You.
