At the recent stallion parades in Victoria one of the sires that really jumped out on type was Lovatsville based Fierce Impact (Jpn), a triple Group I winner in Australia that was seen at his very best winning the Group I VRC Makybe Diva Stakes in 2020.
Set to be contested at Flemington on Saturday, the Makybe Diva invariably attracts an elite WFA field and Fierce Impact was a fitting winner of the race downing Russian Camelot (IRE) to claim his third Australian Group I win at a mile.
Trained by Matthew Smith for a syndicate that included Frank and Christine Cook, in whose colours he ran, Fierce Impact was the complete racehorse. He won six races and placed 12 times from 29 starts earning over $3million in prizemoney before he retired to stud in 2021.
“He raced during the Covid period so we missed out on being there where he won the Makybe Diva,” Frank Cook reflected.
“He was such a good horse for us.
“Matt Smith bought him as a tried horse in the UK and when I saw his name in the results next to him I rang Matt and said, ‘I’m your biggest client, why didn’t you tell me about this horse?’
“I liked everything about him, so I took 25% of him and it’s turned out to be a great investment.”
Cook always believed Fierce Impact might have even more to offer as a stallion and kept an interest going forward.
“I loved the pedigree being by Deep Impact, one of the world’s best sirelines and his female family is top class,” Cook said.
“His full brother Keiai Nautique was also a G1 winner at a mile and his dam was a Group winner from a US family packed with Black Type.
“I spend a lot of time researching pedigrees and in his case you have Deep Impact obviously, but also Elusive Quality and Danzig through the female side of his pedigree, so there are quite a few factors to play around with there.”
Fierce Impact is an outcross sire, but one that has very familiar bloodlines for the Australian market.
With his oldest progeny now three year-olds they are starting to make their presence felt with a flurry of activity coinciding with the start of spring.
Last week Matt Smith saddled the first starter Knight of Rhodes to win at Nowra in the Cook family colours and he will look to break the maiden with another three year-old by Fierce Impact on Friday when Fierceness steps out.
Not far away in his past two starts including a fifth at Canterbury behind Tyreek, Fierceness looks ready to win.
At Belmont yesterday in Perth, Simon Miller scored a well deserved win with his talented Fierce Impact filly Fine Star.
Fourth on debut in a Listed race back in March, she was spelled immediately after and was narrowly beaten into second place at her first two runs back before breaking through. Connections will now look towards the G3 WA Champion Fillies Stakes in November.
A well related filly that was bred by Frank and Christine Cook from stakes-winner Brilliant Bisc, Fine Star was the highest priced weanling from the first crop of Fierce Impact selling for $105,000 at the Inglis Weanling Sale to her trainer Simon Miller.
In New Zealand, Fierce Impact produced a new stakes horse in one of the first Group races of the season with the exciting Donna Logan trained gelding Yokozuna finishing second in the Group III Northland Breeders Stakes (1200m) to well regarded filly Tajana.
Having just his second start following a debut win over highly rated So You Think colt Moretothinkabout last month, Yokozuna is another up and comer to follow and is the second stakes horse in New Zealand for his sire joining Zelia.
Also bred by the Cook’s, Zelia was an impressive heat winner in New Zealand at the early trials last spring and was able to translate that to race day success.
Trained by David Walsh, Zelia has had two wins and two seconds from five starts including a second in the Listed Welcome Stakes at Riccarton back in April.
Having enjoyed the highs of Group I success on the track with Fierce Impact, Frank and Christine Cook have maintained their support of the stallion in his stud career and will be sending mares to him again this year as is Matt Smith.
The trainer has pencilled in seven mares in expectation of what is to come for the Fierce Impact offspring in his stable that include a couple of fillies he believes have Oaks potential for the autumn.
“I know Matt has a few by Fierce that he has a good opinion of and it’s satisfying to see him starting to get those winners,” Cook said.
“He is so well balanced with a great shoulder and good hip to hock, I love that in a horse, and he seems to be passing it on to his offspring.
“When we sent mares to him the first year we ended up selling most of the weanlings or the mares themselves in foal as we wanted to spread them around a bit which is why you see Fine Star in WA and Zelia in New Zealand, both of which we bred.
“Zelia has a double cross 4m x 4f of Elusive Quality and triple cross of Danzig 4f x 5m 5m, while Fine Star is double to Danzig 4f x 4m.
“Knight of Rhodes is also bred with the triple cross of Danzig 4f x 5m 4m.”
Fierce Impact has covered 532 mares in his first four seasons so has plenty of opportunity going forward and stands at a fee of $13,750.
