Every Saturday around Australia at this time of year there are late season three year-olds breaking their maiden, but when the horse in question is a Godolphin bred son of Lonhro that wins by nine and a half lengths on debut, we always want to know more.
Kerguelen had been to the trials six times last year and this year before James Cummings sent him racing with a 1200m maiden at Kembla selected as his starting point.
The
talented gelding made light of the heavy 9 conditions to win in a canter and while connections aren’t getting carried away there does seem to be confidence that he has more to offer.
"I think Kerguelen's an interesting horse who we had to give a lot of time, too,'' James Cummings told Ray Thomas of The Daily Telegraph.
"But we are keeping our feet on the ground with this horse and will bring him through the grades. I hope he can keep backing up that visually impressive debut win.''
Kerguelen is the second winner from Zeehan, a three-quarter sister by Helmet to Group II winning sire Kuroshio and Group III winner Believe ’n’ Succeed, who shot to fame as a broodmare producing Group I Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyke and Kiwi Group I winning sprinter Bounding.
Darley sold Zeehan at the 2022 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale to Shadow Hill Thoroughbreds for $110,000 and they have entered Kerguelen’s winning full sister Coriolis for this year’s sale at the Gold Coast as Lot 438.
Coriolis has not raced since January and is offered as a racing and breeding prospect. She has an older unplaced full sister called Seda that was offloaded by Godolphin through an Inglis Digital Sale last year for $18,000 and she is in foal to Russian Camelot (IRE) in her first year at stud.
