The $100,000 Listed Oakbank Stakes on Easter Saturday was won by spritely eight year-old Heart of a Lion, who is prepared at Morphettville by Lloyd Kennewell.
A $42,000 Magic Millions Adelaide purchase for his trainer from the Mill Park
draft, Heart of a Lion has been a good tough consistent sprinter for the stable
since he won on debut at Balaklava back in November 2012.Stakes placed twice earlier in his career, the son of former Coolmore shuttler Lion Heart (USA) dashed clear to win the 1100 metre Oakbank Stakes by a length and a quarter taking his overall record to 11 wins and 12 placings from 35 starts with prizemoney in excess of $400,000.
Bred by Brenton and Liz Parker and raised at Mill Park, Heart of a Lion is from outstanding producer Madame Flurry, who has had seven foals to race for six winners.
Her stellar list of offspring is headed by triple Group I winner and $3.2 million earner Happy Trails (Good Journey (USA), Group III winner Danish Twist (Dane Shadow), who was third in the Group I ATC Coolmore Classic last year and has won nearly $900,000 in prizemoney, this season's stakes-winning three year-old All Too Huiying (All Too Hard)and now a fourth stakes-winner in Heart of a Lion.
A minor winner by Perugino (USA), Madame Flurry is a half-sister to stakes-winner Lake Villa and stakes-placed Flurry's Autumn, who has also proven a stakes producer leaving Group III winner Royal Sash, the dam of Group winners Sabatini and Vivi Veloce.
This remarkable mare turns 18 this year and still has some unraced stock to
come.Her Sebring yearling filly was sold at Inglis Premier earlier this year by Mill Park for $210,000 to Kennewell Racing and she has a weanling filly by Shooting to Win.
Madame Flurry was covered again last spring by All too Huiying's sire All Too Hard.
