He might be a half-brother to brilliant juvenile Storm Boy, but exciting classic prospect Shangri La Boy leans more to his sire Pierro in type and temperament producing a classy staying performance at Rosehill on Saturday to win the $500,000 Group III ATC Gloaming Stakes (1800m).
Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as was his famous sibling, Shangri La Boy won a 1400m maiden at his second start on October 1 and took the quantum leap on Saturday jumping a considerable class and distance rise in his stride.
Ridden again by Adam Hyeronimus, Shangri La Boy set the pace in front and ambled along as he pleased before kicking away to win by two lengths over progressive Proisir filly The Pearls, a member of the powerful Chris Waller stable.
With two wins and a third from just three starts and $352,000 in prizemoney, Shangri La Boy currently sits on the equal second line of betting for the Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at $6 behind futures favourite Attica at $3.50.
"He's obviously got some great true staying capabilities there," said co-trainer Adrian Bott.
"Storm Boy (is) a great sprinter but this horse in his own right (is) a very good stayer because he's up to this grade very quickly in his career.
"This is his first preparation, just his third start, so to get quickly up to the 1800m and do that in such dominant fashion, it's certainly encouraging."
Despite his status as a Golden Slipper winner and Champion 2YO, Pierro is a noted sire of classic type horses with his list of stakes-winners including Derby and Oaks winners.
"Obviously being by Pierro you always thought he might be more of a classics style and physically that was the way he always presented right from the yearling stage,” Bott said indicating the colt had now earned his shot at the G1 Spring Champion Stakes.
"I think we have to after the manner in which he won that. It was a good test because it was 1400m up to 1800m on a relatively quick turnaround from the Wednesday meeting here 10 days ago."
A $375,000 Magic Millions purchase from Coolmore as agent for Morning Rise for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott/Kestrel Thoroughbreds, Shangri La Boy is the second foal and second stakes-winner from Pelican, a winning Fastnet Rock daughter of NZ Horse of the Year and seven time Group I winner Seachange.
Pelican has a two year-old filly by St Mark’s Basilica (Fr), a yearling filly by Justify (USA) and was covered last spring by Wootton Bassett (GB).
Shangri La Boy is the 40th stakes-winner for Pierro, who stands at a fee of $33,000 at Coolmore this spring.
