High stakes racing at Rosehill, as a big field of class colts - and a lone filly - tackle the $300,000 The Run To The Rose!
Connections will feel their hearts pounding as the G2 1200m feature reveals the G1 Golden Rose contenders of 2025 - and the dreamers.
The Run To The Rose was inaugurated in 2003, and as field quality improved through the years it was upgraded, reaching its G2 status in 2015.
It is the traditional lead in to the G1 Golden Rose Stakes ( formerly Peter Pan Stakes).
A “sire making” race, The Golden Rose also serves as a springboard for gallopers targeting races like the Caulfield Guineas or Coolmore Stud Stakes - even the Cox Plate.
The Run To The Rose / Golden Rose double was won by Paratroopers, Denman, Hallowed Crown, Exosphere, Astern and Bivouac.
Many winners of the G2 have failed narrowly in the G1, so it is a reliable guide with Traffic Warden, Cylinder, In Secret and Anamoe having won the last four runnings.
Talk about an open race! With rain affected ground adding to the form challenge.
I'm nervous about leaving out Wodeton (Wootton Bassett) - all class and consistency, but the barrier? Does he want further now?
Biewacht (Bivouac) and Raging Force (Cosmic Force) have excellent claims too, plus there's a heap of well bred individuals that could easily have made big improvement, or have been kept under wraps until now. Tricky!
Top pick: SKYHOOK
Skyhook (Written Tycoon) couldn't have been more impressive at his return in the Listed Rosebud, carrying 60.5kg on the heavy to an authoritative victory.
Skyhook pulled out a big finish to overhaul another Written Tycoon Grand Prairie (carrying 7kg less!), by half a length. Grand Prairie is no hack - the son of I Am Invincible's dual G1 winning mare Viddora came out and won the G3 Up And Coming Stakes at his next start.
Skyhook was a leading Golden Slipper hope, with a second in the G2 Skyline Stakes and an awesome 3.2 length demolition job in the Pago Pago - but didn't handle the week’s backup, though far from disgraced.
Trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexious have worked out that Skyhook likes his runs spaced, so he arrives here raring to go.
The handsome chestnut has only ever raced at black type level in his five career starts, the Slipper his only unplaced run.
Skyhook is the second foal, and first winner out of the dual winning Redoute’s Choice mare Madame Pauline.
She is a three-quarter sister to the brilliant colt Anders (Not A Single Doubt) who won the G3 San Domenico - and to the multiple stakes winner Ostraka (Pariah).
The professional attitude of both WrittenTycoon and Redoute's Choice were gifted to Skyhook, but he might get a bit of streetfighting attitude from his second damsire War Emblem!
Talk about a character - War Emblem's nickname while racing was “Hannibal Lecter,” which says all we need to know!
He was a formidable racehorse. The Kentucky Derby / Preakness Stakes winning grandson of Mr Prospector was a frontrunner who liked to grind his opposition into the dirt, and that was his attitude to life in general.
War Emblem sold to the Yoshida racing family of Japan for US$17.7 million and arrived at their famous Shadei Stallion Station in 2002.
Unfortunately, the stallion's antisocial attitude extended to mares as well. He ignored them or worse, would outright attack the poor matrons and his handlers.
Major therapy was employed to help cure War Emblem of his behaviour, and each day a variety of mares would be paraded before him in hopes one would ignite at least a passing interest.
But the stallion had a passion for one thing only - peppermints!
Prolific offerings of peppermints could, on occasion, put him in a good enough mood to serve a mare.
War Emblem's largest crop comprised 43 foals. And yet, he was a very good sire, particularly of fillies!
Skyhook is bred
Northern Dancer 5m x 5m
But there is much going on behind the scenes.
The obvious is the linebreeding to Blue Hen Best In Show through Last Tycoon and Redoute's Choice.
War Emblem has close genetic ties with Golden Slipper winner Marscay carried by Written Tycoon. He traces to the same taproot mare as Blue Hen Bee Mac, (inbred in Marscay) and duplicates her son Better Self, while sex balancing her great mate in the breeding barn, Bull Lea.
War Emblem carries the Star Kingdom son Sky High, grandson of Australia’s all time great race mare Flight. She was by Helios, whose dam Foxy Gal is a full sister to War Emblem's ancestress Flying Song (another link to Marscay and importantly, to Vain, who descends from a Helios daughter!) - and to Written Tycoon's concentration of Star Kingdom blood.
Skyhook's damline is of the very best quality going back to Blue Hen The Apple, founder of a family of legendary producers (9-f) and he is extensively linebred to the tribe.
Skyhook's line is through his unraced dam Glamour Stock by the great Sunday Silence, and her dam - also unraced - Appealing Story by speed influence Valid Appeal (dam of four stakes winners including Canadian Champion 2YO colt Exciting Story).
Skyhook's pedigree features multiple lines to the mighty Turn-To (1-w) via Hail To Reason, his son Halo, and Sir Ivor.
A notable cross is provided by General (1-w), son of Brigadier Gerard. Carried by War Emblem, he is related to My Babu and this is a goldmine nick for Written Tycoon!
Skyhook is also linebred to Blue Hen Lalun and to her ancestress Bloodroot.
Adept on heavy ground and drawn well, the colt needs a good steer from regular hoop K McEvoy. Skyhook is a ripper and part of his appeal is his obvious enjoyment of the whole racing caper. He is a very determined character!
Next best: TEMPTED
There was no tougher 2yo filly in the land last season than this brave and classy daughter of Street Boss.
Tempted was unlucky in both the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper, particularly the latter. She may well have won if you reversed runs with the winner Marhoona ( no disrespect to that filly!)
The Godolphin owned and bred filly didn't lose anything by relocating to Ciaron Maher's operation and Godolphin have won this race previously with the filly In Secret, who then ran second in the Golden Rose in 2022.
Tempted is first up here - it's a huge ask, but she does look like something special and is bred to love the wet too!
Tempted is bred
Mr Prospector 4m x 5m
Northern Dancer x 5m,5m
Danzig x 4m,5m
Tempted is a half-sister to multiple Group winner Kalios (Medaglia D’Oro) out of G2 Magic Night Stakes /Gimcrack winner Calliope by Exceed And Excel.
Thus she is bred on the same cross as Street Boss sprinters Elite Street (G1 Winterbottom Stakes) Hanseatic (G1 Blue Diamond) and Traffic Warden ( won this race, second to Broadsiding in the Golden Rose).
Tempted's second dam Melpomene by Elusive Quality has been an excellent producer with Calliope's full brother Zethus also a dual stakes winner. They are half siblings to Thalia (Medaglia D'oro), dam of stakes winning sprinters Aquitaine and Bacchanalia.
Tempted's entire pedigree features many lines of La Troienne and her daughters - in particular Belong To Me has close family ties with the sire Francis S carried by Street Boss!
The ancestress of Street Boss is Dalama - by Djebel and from the family of Blenheim. Tempted's ancestress Vionnay was sired by Djebel's tail male descendant Crested Wave - his fourth dam was by Blenheim.
Blenheim sired Mahmoud, whose daughter Almahmoud, along with La Troienne forms the foundation of Tempted's pedigree.
She flies first up and is drawn ideally with Ethan Browne aboard for the first time!
Roughie: NEPOTISM
The odds are generous for G1 winner Brutal’s son Nepotism! What he did in the G1 Champagne at his third race start was extraordinary - coming from last with a barnstorming finish to overhaul Within The Law (she's my yardstick again!) in the last stride.
With a pedigree that cannot be faulted, the colt embarks on a quest for Spring glory. No doubt his main targets are longer than this, but I think he'll run a mighty race.
Nepotism is out of Brigite, an unraced full sister to champion racehorse and sire All Too Hard, by O'Reilly's G1 winner Brutal, who was a very fast sprinter miler.
Brutal was a dual stakes winner at 1200m and any son of O'Reilly has it in them to throw a heap of speed into a pedigree, while Nepotism's second dam is Blue Hen Helsinge - a freakish source of Group One talent.
Nepotism's dam is a half sister to Black Caviar and to the dam of boom sire and Golden Rose hero Ole Kirk. He's the first stakes winner among her three winners from four to race.
Team Hawkes knows the family so well, having trained both All Too Hard and Ole Kirk to Champion 3YO honours.
Nepotism is bred
Last Tycoon 3m x 4f
Danzig x 5m,5m
It's exciting that he is linebred to Silly Season via sons Lunchtime and Adios - as was Black Caviar -a nick that needs to be pursued! especially through ancestress Scandinavia - who carries sex balanced lines to Grey Sovereign, from the family of Adios himself (6f)
There are key affinities between the damlines of Last Tycoon, Pakistan and Copenhagen, who sired Brutal's ancestress Marchere. Sex balancing Last Tycoon is a recipe for sustained speed, and sex balanced lines to Mill Reef add still more depth to Nepotism's pedigree.
Another fabulous nick - Pompeii Court's ancestress Plymstock was a daughter of Winkipop. Plymstock is ancestress of Court Martial - Vain's tail male line - while Nepotism's amazing tail female line descends from Winkipop's full sister Third Trick.
Already assured of a stud career, Nepotism is going places (maybe to a Cox Plate!) and it helps that he's bred to enjoy the wet. With Tyler Schiller in the saddle from barrier five, he should unleash a big finish.
Blowout: RIVELLINO
Rivellino! He’s way over the odds as I see it. Always a very good colt, going undefeated in his first three starts, where he beat my trusty yardstick Within The Law and top pick Skyhook before a brave fourth in the Slipper.
He’s bred to swim, by the amazing Too Darn Hot out of the winning So You Think mare Intrinsic
His dam (also trained by Lees) is out of multiple Group placed mare Vecchia Roma by Testa Rossa - fifth in the Golden Rose won by super filly Forensics.
The lovely looking Rivellino descends from Rarcamba, granddam of legendary racer and sire Vain, to whom he also has a line via Testa Rossa. It's a prolific winner getting damline.
Marscay's son Blazing Sword was a good sire produced from Rarcamba's granddaughter Royal Plate by Lunchtime, the fifth dam of Rivellino. This family is overdue to produce another good stallion. Could Rivellino be the one?
The line has been spiced up in a big way by So You Think, an increasingly influential broodmare sire and by Too Darn Hot, the royally bred son of global supersire Dubawi, who burst out of the blocks with his champion colt and Golden Rose hero Broadsiding!
Rivellino is bred
Sadler's Wells 5m x 4m
Blue Hen Fairy Bridge 6m x5m,5m
Importantly this is sex balanced by his dam's line to the good sire Thatch, a full brother to Blue Hen Special, the dam of Fairy Bridge.
Linebreeding to various branches of the 5 families forms the framework of Rivellino's pedigree.
With several lines to Blue Hen Lalun through her son Bold Reason by Hail To Reason, the sire of Fairy Bridge we need a) Bold Reason's half brother Never Bend and b) the male line of Hail To Reason. We have both - Mill Reef / Shirley Heights and Roberto in Dubawi, and Halo / Mill Reef in Singspiel.
High Chaparral brings a line to Sadler's Wells great nick Darshaan, and his dam Delsy is the third dam of Too Darn Hot.
Rivellino jumps from gate 9 and has all the experience of Nash Rawiller to guide him!
