Australian spring racing is a smorgasbord of interest for pedigree watchers and a trio of up and coming three year-olds from Saturday highlight the role of imported mares in Australia and exposed an emerging nick probably better known in North America.
The Group III MRC Vain Stakes (1100m) was won by Band of Brothers, who made it two wins from four starts when scoring his first Black Type win and you can read about him here.
A homebred for Contract Racing, Band of Brothers is the first Australian stakes-winner and seventh worldwide for the former Spendthrift Farm shuttler Omaha Beach (USA), a multiple Group I winning son of War Front who stood for $40,000 in the US this year.
What’s interesting about Band of Brothers is the use of US bloodlines to update what has been a very successful Australian female family for a long time as Band of Brothers is from a daughter of Medaglia D’Oro, which is where it gets really interesting.
Omaha Beach has had seven runners from mares by Medaglia D’Oro and four of them have won and three of those are stakes-winners – Band of Brothers and US bred Landed and Hot Beach- while a fourth is Pirate, who was third in the Group I Saratoga Hopeful Stakes.
Band of Brothers is the 114th stakes-winner as a broodmare sire for Medaglia D’Oro, who shuttled to Darley Australia for eight seasons.
The Listed ATC Rosebud Stakes (1100m) was won by highly rated colt Gatsby’s having his third race start, read about him here.
Gatsby’s is the 146th stakes-winner for champion sire Snitzel and like the above stakes-winner has plenty of US influence in his pedigree being from imported Miss Charming (USA), who has now had three foals by Snitzel that are all Black Type horses as he is a full brother to G2 winner Letzbeglam and stakes-placed Snazz ‘n’ Charm.
He is also the 75th stakes-winner for Forestry as a broodmare sire and adds to the significant success achieved by Snitzel and his sire sons with mares carrying Storm Cat blood with Group I winners Duais, In the Congo and Invincible Sage bred that way.
There was no Black Type on the Benchmark 72 event at Rosehill over 1300m, but the winner Autumn Glow topped Inglis Easter at $1.8million and gave every indication she may well have the motor to match the good looks, read about her here.
Autumn Glow is a three-quarter sister to In The Congo, who is by Snitzel, whereas she is by another Redoute’s Choice son in The Autumn Sun and as a result is a far leggier and scopier type of horse than the Golden Rose winner.
Again it’s a pedigree with plenty of imported content with her dam Via Africa (SAfr), a triple Group I winning Champion Sprinter in South Africa, whose 10 wins never extended beyond 1200m.
Her sire Var was bred in Kentucky and raced initially in the US before finding his calling as a turf sprinter in Europe where he won the Group I G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp before being retired to stud in South Africa. Her dam won three minor races in South Africa over 1000m and produced 11 winners with Via Africa the only stakes-winner.
It’s an obscure old South African female family with minimal Black Type on the page until Via Africa landed in the middle of it like a UFO on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, totally out of left field. What’s even weirder is that Via Africa is now in the position of having not only produced an Aussie G1 winner in In The Congo, who was the busiest first season sire in Australia last spring, but also an Inglis Easter sale-topper that may also end up a G1 winner… go figure!
