Given a peach of a ride by Melbourne based jockey Ethan Brown who had ridden the gelding into third two starts back in the Group 2 MRC Peter Young Stakes (1800m), the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald trained Bois D’Argent led throughout at Randwick to win the Group 3 ATC JRA Plate (2000m) by more than two lengths.
A winner of the Group 1 BRC Doomben Cup (2000m) in May last year, the grey gelding had finished fourth in the JRA Plate enroute to the 2024 Queensland Winter carnival, and surely connections will follow suit this year once again.
“I thought Ethan just rode him beautifully, rated him perfectly, and it's not always easy to get that scenario where you get sort of left alone in front, and he doesn't have to be, but when he does, it makes his life a lot easier, and it's probably the recipe for winning,” stated Neasham.
“Whether he goes straight there (Doomben Cup) or whether we go via Hollindale, we'll just see how he is, but certainly Queensland's on the radar.”
Initially a €16,000 purchase at the 2018 Arqana October Yearlings Sale, Bois D’Argent was secured in a private sale by Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock for OnTrack Thoroughbreds.
Having amassed more than $1.6m in earnings for his connections from his seven wins and 17 placed efforts, the son of Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (IRE) is a half-brother to the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Grand Glory (Olympic Glory) out of the Daylami mare Madonna Lily, a half-sister to Group 2 winner Minakshi and the multiple stakes-winning hurdler Marble Garden.
The sire of six individual Group 1 winners, Toronado is currently sitting in ninth position on the Australian General Sire table and with the likely prospect of Bois D’Argent heading to Queensland for the winter carnival, the Victorian based sire looks set for his best ever season.
