Exceptional Encosta de Lago filly English was rated the Champion 2YO and 3YO Filly of her generation and the Newhaven Park homebred produced her first winner on Wednesday when exciting Snitzel colt King’s English opened his account in the Te Akau tangerine.
The second foal of his dual Group I winning dam, King’s English was purchased by David Ellis from the Newhaven Park draft at Inglis Easter for $700,000 and the three year-old was having his third start in the 1150m maiden at Te Aroha.
After placing at his first two starts on soft ground earlier in the spring, he stepped out on good footing for the first time as a hot favourite and put in the performance punters were expecting.
Jockey Craig Grylls was positive out of the gates, sending the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson trained colt forward from his wide alley in search of the lead, but I’ll Be Home Soon punched up on the inside to maintain his advantage on the rail.
The pair went head-to-head and opened up several lengths on the rest of the field before King’s English dropped his rival cold to go and win by nearly six lengths.
Co-trainer Sam Bergerson was pleased with the dominant performance.
“He was electric,” he said. “We thought they had gone pretty hard early, and obviously the other leader weakened off, but he kept going right through the line and he is just going from strength-to-strength this horse.
“A bit of time between runs he was feeling very well and it was good to see him put in a performance like that.
“He is putting on a bit of weight and he is certainly going the right way as we head into some nice races potentially for him.
“It’s an exciting time for the ownership group and hopefully he can go on with it.”
Grylls was just as impressed with the performance, and believes King’s English has a bright future in-store.
“He was impressive,” Grylls said.
“It was pretty easy. He travelled really nice and had a very nice kick on him today. He definitely franked that form today (of his first two runs) and he is going to be one that goes on with it too.
“He’s a really well-bred colt, is a good mover and a nice horse in general.”
King’s English is the second foal and first winner for English, a dual G1 winner of $3.4million, whose next two dams Court and Splish were also bred and raced by Newhaven Park, so he is a Kelly family product through and through.
Newhaven Park sold a Snitzel filly from English at Inglis Easter this year to Hilldene Farm / James Bester Bloodstock for $1million and she has been named Queen’s English with Anthony and Sam Freedman to train.
English has a glorious looking Dundeel yearling colt and produced a filly this spring by Newhaven Park’s young Savabeel stallion Mo’Unga.
