With two barrier trials under his belt, Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou’s Palace Pier (GB) colt Southend showed an explosive turn of foot to come from the tail of the field on debut, winning the Paul Perry 2YO Handicap (1300m) at Newcastle on Friday.
In the field of nine juveniles, only three had been to the races in the past with the Brad Widdup trained Anthropoid (Prague) jumping away the favourite, resuming from a spell off the back of a fourth placed effort in the $1m G3 ATC Golden Gift.
As jockey Zac Lloyd took the John O'Shea and Tom Charlton trained Gigi forward to take up the running, Godolphin’s 2yo Ghaiyyath colt Skua went forward under Jason Collett to settle in second with Southend drifting back to last after jumping from barrier 6.
With Maurice filly Gigi taking the field into the home straight, Collett was starting to get busy aboard Skua who was taking a little while to warm up, while Adma Hyeronimus’ Somethings Burnin’ (Too Darn Hot) was starting to make up ground and look a chance.
While all of this was happening up the front, Gibbons had asked Southend for an effort down the outside and the fcolt sprinted to the leaders, pulling away to record victory by just over a length from Ciaron Maher’s Skua who did a solid job to battle back and take second.
Finishing in third was Chris Waller’s Somethings Burnin’, narrowly behind the runner up with the trifecta runners all making their debuts and look to be progressive juveniles to watch going forward.
Trainer Gerald Ryan felt that Southbend would run well, indicting to the owners that he’d be in the finish.
“Nice horse,” enthused Ryan. “I told the owners on Thursday night he would not miss top three."
“He is awesome. As Luke (race caller) said, he's a son of Palace Pier. He was a Champion - 11 starts for nine wins, sixg roup wins, and two thirds, and these two thirds are in the same race as a three-and a four-year-old in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. It's a pity he only stood here one year.”
“We loved him at the sales, and he was late and Sterling and I just waited until he came back and we were only going to bid on one horse and I will say he’s out of a three-quarter sister to Peltzer. Peltzer was a flyer this, ohe's going to get over ground.
“I don't know where we go with him now. I'll just speak to the boys. The plan was give him one run, perhaps two, and then drop him out and we'll just see how he does and where he goes, because whatever he does now, he's going to be a hell of a lot better three-year-old.”
Purchased from the draft of leading South Australian farm Mill Park Stud for $425,000 at the Magic Millions yearling sale by her trainers, the Defiant Thoroughbred Breeding Trust, Pat Hodby and Charlie Parletta-bred Southend is the second Australian winner from the lone local crop of Darley’s Kingman stallion Palace Pier (GB), a five-time G1-winning, dual Champion Miler.
The second winner out of So You Think’s Listed winner So You Are, herself a three-quarter-sister to Twin Hills’ G2 Peltzer, who was also a Mill Park graduate trained by Ryan and Alexiou, it is also the family of the Australian-bred, South African raced G3 winner Crown Towers (Camelot), who the farm had also sold as a yearling.
So We Are’s currently yearling, a colt by Newgate Farm’s Russian Revolution will be offered as part of Mill Park Stud’s 18-strong draft at the upcoming Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale as Lot 51, while the mare foaled a filly by Maurice (Jpn) back in October before being covered by Harry Angel (IRE).
The second highest priced yearling to sell in Australia by his sire, the colt became the second winner for Palace Pier with the Anthony and Sam Freedmand trained Wolf Gap a stylish winner at Warwick Farm last week, while this Saturday the Ben, Will and JD Hayes trained Regal Ambition will be out to improve from her debut second when she contests the Listed VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Flemington.
