Last Saturday, spring kicked into overdrive and we saw three Group races for 3YO colts and geldings that included the winners of last season’s GI MRC Blue Diamond, G1ATC Sires Produce and the Golden Slipper runner-up, but none of them could land a blow.
Was it just the need of a run to chase the winter blues away for Devil Night, Vinrock and Wodeton or are Raging Force, Tycoon Star and Grand Prairie the horses to be followed forward?
Waiting in the wings are the big bangers Nepotism, Autumn Boy and North England, so whatever way you look at things the next couple of months are going to be filled with intrigue.
G3 San Domenico Stakes (1100m) Rosehill -He’s a gelding so there are no studs getting excited about Raging Force as a sire prospect, but what Darby Racing might have is a really good sprinter for the now and the future. Read more here.
Raging Force is the fifth stakes-winner for Deep Field’s well priced son Cosmic Force, a fast Group II winner by champion Hong Kong Sire Deep Field.
He is the first stakes-winner for his stakes-placed dam Miss Loren, who is by the well bred Fastnet Rock stallion Stryker and it might surprise a few people to learn he has actually sired the dams of four stakes-winners.
The direct female family is all Australian going way back and his sixth dam is interesting as Nippy Vista is a half-sister to blue hen Dark Jewel, the dam of five stakes-winners headed by G1 winners Baguette, Cabochon and Heirloom.
What is seriously interesting and will prick the ears of the pedigree gurus is that Cosmic Force also traces in tail female line to Nippy Vista.
G3 Up and Coming Stakes (1300m) Rosehill – Blueblood Written Tycoon colt Grand Prairie had race fitness on his side and now has a stakes win on the resume, read about him here.
He is the 78th stakes-winner for Written Tycoon and is his third stakes-winning 3YO this season and we are just one month in! That coming off the back of the 2024/2025 season when Written Tycoon was the Champion 3YO Sire.
Grand Prairie is the ninth stakes-winner for I Am Invincible as a broodmare sire and is from his dual G1 winning daughter Viddora. While Viddora was all about speed and never won beyond 1200m, her tail female line goes back to European staying blood with her fifth dam Delagoa, a half-sister to Arc winner Detroit, the dam of another Arc winner Carnegie (IRE), who enjoyed considerable success at stud here and in New Zealand.
This is also the same French female family responsible for producing champion sire Zabeel, so it’s been quite a transformation of this family from it’s Euro staying roots to modern day Australian speed.
Grand Prairie is not the first stakes-winner to feature Written Tycoon and I Am Invincible in the same pedigree, he is actually the third joining Straight Charge (by Written By from a daughter of I Am Invincible) and Mishani Lily (by I Am Invincible son Kobayashi from a daughter of Written Tycoon).
G3 McNeil Stakes (1200m) Caulfield – Tycoon Star won the G3 Maribyrnong Plate last spring on debut and hadn’t won since until last Saturday, although had run some very good races in tough company, read about him here.
Another Group winning colt for champion sire Written Tycoon he is from stakes-placed Miss Iano, a mare by Equiano (Fr), a super fast two time Royal Ascot King’s Stand Stakes winner who shuttled to Victoria with limited success.
Tycoon Star is one of nine SW’s for Equiano as a broodmare sire and seven of the others are European bred including current star 3YO sprinter Arizona Blaze.
His female family is another old Australian one that goes back to greatness with his sixth dam being VRC Oaks winner Amarco, best known as the dam of the mighty two time Cox Plate winner Tobin Bronze.
Like so many of our old classic Australian families it has had the stamina pretty much bred out of it in recent generations with the last G1 winner in the family being Caulfield Guineas winner Kenwood Melody, who was by Champion Miler Royal Academy (USA) from Tycoon Star’s fourth dam Egrette.
