Transatlantic’s lucrative spring carnival continued at Randwick with an arrogant victory in the $1m Five Diamonds Prelude.
A fortnight after winning his first G1 in the $1m Toorak Handicap at Caulfield, the Tony Gollan-trained Transatlantic (Snitzel) treated his rivals with contempt, easing down for the easiest of victories by 2.2 lengths.
Offered at the Easter Yearling Sale by Segenhoe Stud – whose colours he races in – the Go Bloodstock-bred Transatlantic is a $360,000 purchase for his trainer Tony Gollan, Harbour Equine and John Foote.
He has now won eight of his 21 career starts for $1.9m in earnings.
Segenhoe’s Peter O’Brien described Transatlantic as a “superstar’’.
“He was a beautiful yearling but he just needed time,’’ O’Brien recalled.
“John Foote, who is a judge I respect as much as anyone, loved him and bought him for Tony [Gollan] and I couldn’t rate the horse more highly so we went in too thankfully.
“He’s really the measure of Tony, all along he’s said he’s a good horse and isn’t he proving that at the moment especially.
“Tony has managed him so well all week and he was supremely confident today that the horse would win and he was right, again.
“It continues the success of Segenhoe and Easter.’’
Transatlantic (pictured) will now progress to the $2m Five Diamonds, to be run at Rosehill on November 8.
Meanwhile at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day today Inglis graduates dominated the undercard.
Exciting colt Napoleonic (Wootton Bassett) led in an Inglis Easter graduates trifecta in the G3 Red Anchor Stakes when defeating Live and Ornithology.
The John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained 3YO came from near last in the run to round up his rivals in a matter of strides before being eased down by champion jockey James McDonald for the easiest of victories.
Bred by Bill Frost, Napoleonic is a $360,000 Easter purchase for Dean Hawthorne – on behalf of Jonathan Munz – from the Widden draft.
The colt has now won three of his six career starts.
“He’s a lovely, lovely horse and he’ll only get better with racing, he’s a quality colt,’’ winning co-trainer Charlton said.
“He’s got a great brain this horse. He’s been here the past couple of weeks and he worked fantastic here on Tuesday and we’re pretty pleased. Hopefully he can go on with it now.’’
Later on the program Salty Pearl (Tagaloa) backed up from a strong performance in last weekend’s G1 Thousand Guineas to score a valuable first Group victory in the G2 Fillies Classic at Moonee Valley.
The glistening grey was in need of some luck in the home straight, settling behind the leaders and looking like she was going to finish luckless behind the winner.
But jockey Ben Allen found a gap at the 150m mark and squeezed through, setting his 3YO filly to a comfortable victory in the end.
Salty Pearl is a $75,000 Classic Yearling Sale buy for trainer Ciaron Maher and Adrien Senechaud’s Starblue Consultancy, from the Sullivan Bloodstock draft, who offered the filly on behalf of her breeder David Brideoake.
“She’s had a beautiful prep this filly, she was very narrowly beaten in the [Thousand] Guineas last week and she’d done well during the week so we thought ‘what a great opportunity’,’’ Maher said.
“Adrien and his crew, they’re building each year and they’ve got a great bunch of owners. They pick out really nicely valued horses at the sales and they’re having a great run at the moment.
“This is what it’s all about, they’re here on Cox Plate Day and winning a Stakes race with a filly, it doesn’t get much better.’’
And Von Hauke (Savabeel) scored a deserving victory in the G2 Crystal Mile, taking his career prizemoney to $950,000.
Trainer Cliff Brown bought the Waikato Stud-bred Von Hauke at the Premier Yearling Sale for $190,000, from the Stonehouse Thoroughbreds draft.
Inglis Release
