No stallion has a better strike rate with his 2-year-olds this season than Kobayashi, whose third crop of 32 live foals is doing him proud.
Kobayashi had two runners as part of the seven-strong Mishani army in Saturday’s $500,000 Aquis QTIS Jewel (1200m) for 2-year-olds at the Gold Coast, and they finished first and third.
The honours went to the filly Mishani Aloha in a Les Ross-trained trifecta. Ridden by Samantha Collett, Mishani Aloha turned back the challenge of the fast-finishing Too Darn Hot (GB) colt Superalloy by one and a quarter lengths, with Mishani Lily a half-length back in third.
“She is a nice filly. Benny Thompson won a couple on her and likes her because she is a Kobi,” Les Ross said.
“Sam turns up to my stable three days a week to ride work, and it’s nice to repay her.
“I was strong on the third horse, but I’m pleased that horse got up.”
A homebred for Mike Crooks' Mishani Enterprises, Mishani Aloha was a $4,000 buyback from the KBL Thoroughbreds draft at the 2023 National Yearling Sale. She advances her record to three wins from six starts with earnings of $525,550.
Mishani Aloha is the best of two winners from three to race for the winning Refuse To Bend (IRE) mare Hawaiian Princess, a daughter of the Listed AJC Toy Show Hcp runner-up Aloha Charm (Marauding), the sister to Pontal Lass, winner of the Group 1 AJC Flight Stakes, Group II Magic Night Stakes, Group II Tea Rose Stakes, and placed in the Group 1 VRC Oaks, and Group 1 AJC Champagne Stakes.
Hawaiian Princess has a yearling colt by The Mission and was covered by Kobayashi after foaling a Sun City colt in November.
Mishani Aloha’s win pushes the earnings of Kobayashi’s 2-year-olds past the $1million mark this season, and he is the sixth leading 2-year-old sire in the nation with five winners from seven runners.
The Aquis Farm resident is one of five stallions from the I Am Invincible sire line in the top ten. He is just behind Hellbent and ahead of exciting first-season sire Tassort, a son of tenth-placed Brazen Beau. And the leading first-season sire Royal Meeting (IRE) is a son of Invincible Spirit (IRE), the sire of I Am Invincible.
Kobayashi had struggled for patronage with just six foals in his fifth crop. But there is no better advertisement than results on the track, and the owners of 114 mares made the trek to Aquis Farm last season.
