The most impressive winner at Ipswich today was a filly by one of the most under-rated sires in the country.
When Kermadec gets a good one, he gets a really good one, with four Group I winners – Montefilia, Tuvalu and Oaks winners Willowy and Amokura - among his seven stakes-winners.
The Chris Waller stable have high hopes for his daughter Scarlet Oak, who won easily at the metro meeting at Newcastle last Saturday and also for Kenyada, who strolled home at Ipswich in a Class 3 event over 1680m.
Kenyada won her debut at Newcastle last year and then has shown glimpses of something better in subsequent starts with a good fourth in the Group III ATC Adrian Knox Stakes earning her a trip to Brisbane.
Midfield in her first start up there in the Listed Princess Stakes last month, Kenyada was dropped back in grade for this easier assignment and used it as a confidence builder, powering away from her rivals to win as she pleased by three and a half lengths under James Orman.
Kenyada runs for her owner breeder Michael Crismale of Matrix Racing and was retained to race after passing in shy of her $70,000 reserve at Inglis Classic when offered by Lime Country Thoroughbreds.
She is the first winner for Yukon Dance, an unraced So You Think daughter of the Crismale family’s former top line mare Shania Dane, a Group I place multiple Group winning sister to Hong Kong stakes-winner Scintillation from a family packed with Group and stakes-winners including Group I winning juvenile Summer Passage.
Yukon Dance was on-sold in 2021 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale to Yarramalong Park for $60,000 and they sold her current yearling, a filly by Better Than Ready at Magic Millions this year for $150,000 to Gollan Racing/John Foote Bloodstock.
Kermadec has only a small crop of 34 two year-olds this season, but has had a resurgence in popularity of late covering books of 122 and 118 mares in the last two years at a fee of $16,500 and the Group I winning son of Teofilo remains at that fee at Darley Victoria this spring.
