The Group I VRC Lightning Stakes (1000m) was billed as a clash of the super 3YO colts, but as they fizzled under pressure it was the mares that came out on top with the first three horses home all being mares and all owned by partnerships that may in the future look to cash in their fleet footed females, so we through we’d take a closer look at the pedigrees.
The Mitch Freedman trained Skybird took the prize as a roughie, but the reality is she has always shown more than a touch of class as a dual Group II winner and was third in the Group I MRC Thousand Guineas to Joliestar and Kimochi.
A $110,000 Inglis Classic purchase, Skybird on face value has a pedigree that is not fashionable being by Exosphere from a daughter of Wanted, but there is a bit more to it than that.
Go a generation back and look at the sires of those sires – Lonhro and Fastnet rock and now we’re cooking with gas, also take in her female family as her third dam is stakes-winning Storm Bird mare Snow Finch (IRE).
A prolific producer, Snow Finch left 10 winners headed by Group III winner Captain Bax and influential stakes-winner Snippets’ Lass, the dam of Group I winning champion sire Snitzel, Group III winning sire Hinchinbrook and the dam of Group I ATC Epsom Handicap winner Rediener. Also throw into the family $11.9million earning Group I winner Private Eye and you can see why the Skybird owners are sitting on a potential fortune.
A $64,000 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale purchase, runner-up Stretan Angel is a Group II winner and this is her second G1 placing as she chased Benedetta for second in the Group I SAJC Goodwood Handicap last year and was fourth in the spring in the Group I VRC Darley Champions Sprint.
Stretan Angel is by Harry Angel (IRE) and has a very diverse pedigree that is free of Danehill blood and her first three dams are all by US sires Bernardini, Fusaichi Pegasus and Dehere. It’s a strong Black Type female family albeit missing a G1 winner which Stretan Angel may well change before her racing days are done.
A $75,000 Inglis Premier Yearling purchase, Hellbent mare Benedetta won the Group I SAJC Goodwood Handicap last year after finishing third in the Group I SAJC Robert Sangster Stakes and she was also fourth last year in both the Group I VRC Newmarket Handicap and MRC Oakleigh Plate.
She is one of two Group I winning mares by Hellbent and the other is Magic Time, who has already been bought privately by Yulong, so it’s not hard to see Benedetta being in similar demand.
On the pedigree front she has only one strain of Danehill and it’s back a little as her grand-dam is by Elvstroem, but what is intriguing about her pedigree is that she comes from a very old and very good female family tracing back to VRC Oaks winner Leica Show. This is a family that historically has produced serious G1 horses and Benedetta fits that profile.
