The fastest juveniles in WA are zooming towards the 2026 G2 Karrakatta Plate in two week’s time, and yesterday at Ascot two unbeaten stars had their wares on full display.
First to go in the Listed Perth Stakes 1100m were the colts and geldings, with the runaway Magic Millions Crystal Slipper winner Beatty ( Gingerbread Man) looking to pick up where he left off in November.
The Sean and Jake Casey trained youngster was sent out favourite to claim his third straight victory and first stakes win ahead of stablemate He's A Machino (Maschino), who had placed third to glamour filly Aurum Belle ( Snitzel) on his recent return in the Listed Supremacy Stakes.
The two colts dominated the market and are not only stablemates - both were bred by legendary WA owner and breeder Wally Daley.
In the field of ten runners punters gave some hope to the well related Boy Crush ( Manhattan Rain) and to Consignment ( Playing God) who had been a well beaten runner up in the Crystal Slipper behind Beatty - while they were wary of Dan Morton's Too Darn Hot colt Afireofgidgeecoals.
When the field left the barriers Beatty for Chris Parnham began best, but brother Brad aboard He's A Machino quickly shot through along the rail to take up the running. The favourite settled in second with Lucy Fiore and Afireofgidgeecoals dropping into third and roughie Marcos ( A Lot) racing outside him in fourth.
That's the way they stayed for the duration of the race as the big Maschino colt took them along at a smart clip, gradually increasing the pressure as they neared the home turn. Favourite backers had an anxious moment as Beatty momentarily came off the bit and had to be niggled by Parnham to pick up as they swung into the straight but the son of Gingerbread Man responded gamely. Marcos had come off heels but his run was short-lived, and it was Fiore on the Too Darn Hot colt who came up the rail to challenge the top two.
A thrilling battle ensued but despite He's A Machino having a fitness edge on his stablemate it was Beatty who proved the strongest in the final strides and he hit the line hard to win by a short neck, with Afireofgidgeecoals the same margin away in third. The trio gapped the fourth horse Boy Crush, who made nice ground from back in the ruck.
The quinella was a great result for the Casey stable, Wally Daley, and jockey Chris Parnham, who notched up his third Perth Stakes win in the last four years.
Beatty's record now reads 3-3-0-0 for earnings of $289,640
There is little between the two classy colts and it will be fascinating to watch them match motors again in the Karrakatta Plate and possibly the WA Sires, which also looks like an eminently suitable target for the third horse.
Beatty is a homebred for Daley and is the fourth foal, third winner and first stakes winner from Femette ( Murtajill) - a winning daughter from Wally and his late brother George’s 2004 Gimcrack Stakes heroine Refemme (Surtee).
Beatty's three year old half brother by Shooting To Win is named Peter Gunn and has won two and placed twice in just five starts, while his half sister Camera Action by the same sire has won four races.
Femette has a Toronado daughter Toronado Magic who is retained by Daley -she has produced two foals for him by Maschino and Beatty's sire Gingerbread Man - while Femette herself produced a full brother to Beatty last season and was then served by Rommel.
Refemme was the only stakes winner from her dam Guinevere (Agincourt) and this speedy family descends from the VATC Debutante Stakes winner Limousine (Landau) - her best progeny was the Roma Cup winner Star Glitter.
This is a branch of family 2- which traces to a daughter of Heroic named Hall Mark's Sister and yes she was a full sister to that Hall Mark, the great champion of the 1930s who won the AJC / VRC Derbies and Melbourne Cup at three years, and many other major races over all distances. This is the family of the great imported matriarch Teppo by Ladas and many great horses have traced their ancestry to her.
Beatty is bred
Roberto x5m,5m
He is the ninth stakes winner for Yarradale Stud's Gingerbread Man. The son of Shamardal sired the Karrakatta Plate winner of 2017, Ima Single Man who was exported and raced successfully in HK.
Gingerbread Man's sire Shamardal is bred 5f x 4f to Halo and 5m x 5m to his sire Hail To Reason - including an important sex balancing female line of Roberto which comes via his sire Giant's Causeway.
That Storm Cat son was linebred to Roberto's family (12-c) as it is also the tribe of his damsire Rahy (by Halo)
As Roberto is a frequent presence in top class juvenile pedigrees, we can see why this mating has brought forth such a precocious colt!
Other notable aspects of Beatty's pedigree are his linebreeding to Blue Hens Almahmoud (Machiavellian, Danehill, Halo) Myrtlewood ( Mr Prospector, Seattle Slew, Never Say Die is by their relative Baldric), Cherokee Rose ( Storm Cat, Be My Guest, Bold Commander and relative Red God), Nile Lily ( Rock Of Gibraltar, Riverman) Betty Derr (Reverse, Swaps) and to old faithfuls Lalun and La Troienne.
The great sire Beau Pere makes many appearances in this pedigree - and he is sex balanced in Gingerbread Man's third dam Miss Diable - a descendant of Phar Lap's full sister Fortune's Wheel, the seventh dam of the great Sunline.
Beatty is linebred to Grey Sovereign, Star Kingdom, Nashua, Round Table and more.
Gingerbread Man stands at Yarradale Stud on a fee of $5,500
Next up the girls were on show in the G3 Gimcrack Stakes 1100m, and it was all about the undefeated Snitzel filly Aurum Belle.
Could Neville Parnham's blueblooded excitement machine assert her dominance by equalling Beatty with a hat trick of wins, and one-up him with a second stakes victory?
Aurum Belle had led all the way and relegated He's A Machino to third in the Supremacy Stakes at her previous start, where the colt had a tough run but was left four lengths in her wake as she flew to the line. Punters sent her out the hottest of favourites for the Gimcrack with Brad Parnham in the saddle.
Chris Parnham was riding the only rival they gave any real hope to, and that was the Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic winner Maria Lucia (Rommel), attempting to give her jockey - and the Casey stable - a clean sweep of the juvenile features, as she returned to the track undefeated from two starts.
There was a little nibble of interest in Jedi Dream ( Cosmic Force), a convincing winner at her Ascot debut, but the remaining eleven runners were all at very long odds.
The two star fillies had both drawn wide, but with superior gate speed far superior to that of their rivals they both began brilliantly and crossed to the lead with ease.
Aurum Belle took up the running and Maria Lucia was content to sit in the breeze as Jedi Dream, who had also pushed forward, found herself out on a limb and about to endure a torrid run.
Aurum Belle ran them along at a cracking pace. The Snitzel filly railed like a greyhound and kicked clear in the straight, but Maria Lucia was in for the fight. She rallied strongly and put Aurum Belle to the test for the first time in the glamour filly's career - but to no avail.
Aurum Belle refused to falter and went powerfully to the line to hold off the gallant Maria Lucia by half a length. The two of them completely burned off the rest of the field with Dan Morton's Rommel filly Lady Torque charging late into third, but she was more than four lengths away. Ruthless Angel ( Bondi) was the best of the rest in fourth place.
The time was a slick 1.04.24 (quicker than the colts). and the win gave legendary trainer Neville Parnham his first Gimcrack winner since Magic Heaven saluted more than two decades ago.
Parnham was certainly pleased with the performance of his star juvenile, but he revealed that the feisty filly is a handful to deal with.
“They've run more than a second faster than the boys. She's got speed, but she can maintain that speed when she kicks off the corner. I reckon she clocks off a bit to be honest,” he said.
“Hopefully she'll get more experience and be better for that. It was a courageous run by the second horse too, but my filly will be right at her peak in a couple of weeks time.”
Aurum Belle’s parade ring antics are well known, but she is no lady behind the scenes either.
“ She was up on her hind legs back there in the stalls. She's a real firecracker. Anything will set her off. I need to say thank you to all my staff for putting up with her, because she's not easy,” said the trainer.
“ She’s a G3 winner now, and with her pedigree she's justifying her big price tag. We’ll head on to the Karrakatta, and if she wins that I'd say she'll be heading eastward.”
Aurum Belle advances her record to 3-3-0-0 for earnings of $221,940.
She still has a way to go to pay off her price tag, but the stunning daughter of Snitzel was a breeding jewel in waiting from the moment she was born, and has a pedigree that would look right at home in a Golden Slipper.
A member of Snitzel's penultimate crop, the filly was a $725,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Parnham Racing / Ridgeport from The Chase and is the second foal from the top shelf I Am Invincible mare Dame Giselle.
Bred by China Horse Club Racing and trained out of the Snowden stables at Randwick, Dame Giselle won the $1 million Golden Gift at just her second race start, before winning the G2 Reisling Stakes on her way to a creditable seventh in Farnan's Golden Slipper.
As a three year old she imperiously swept the first three legs of the prestigious Darley Princess Series with consecutive G2 triumphs in the Silver Shadow, Furious and Tea Rose Stakes.
In the first two she defeated the star Frankel daughter Hungry Heart who would go on to take the G1 Vinery Stud Stakes / ATC Oaks double later in the year.
The final leg of the series, the G1 Flight Stakes was won by the future champion Montefilia ( 4 x G1 winner) with Hungry Heart second and another top G1 performer Vangelic beating Dame Giselle into fourth. That was a supreme crop of fillies.
Dame Giselle would go on to to place in the G1 Coolmore Classic, before retiring to stud duties at the end of her three year old season with five stakes wins and more than $1.3 million in career earnings to her name.
Her first foal, an Exceed And Excel filly was sold by The Chase for $1 million to Waterhouse/ Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds at Inglis Easter 2024. Named Exigent, she is yet to race.
A cracking Extreme Choice colt was Dame Giselle's next foal - he was a $1.2 million purchase for Waller Racing / Mulcaster Bloodstock at MM Gold Coast this year
A full sister to Aurum Belle was born in August 2025, as the industry mourned the passing of mighty Snitzel that June.
Dame Giselle is now in foal to Zoustar.
Her dam Ballet Society (NZ) by Stravinsky won six races from twenty eight starts, including the G2 Kewney and Angus Armanasco Stakes at a mile. She also won twice at G3 level over sprint trips in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Dame Giselle was her sole stakes winner from eight named foals, but every one of them was a winner.
Notably they included Dame Giselle's half sister The Fairy's Kiss (Elusive Quality) - dam of quality juveniles, the Merson Cooper Stakes winner Steal My Kisses (now owned by Widden) and the NZ bred G2 Taranaki 2YO Classic winner Ulanova (Santos) who sadly died while foaling a Zoustar filly for Yulong - thankfully, her little one survived.
Other progeny from Ballet Society include promising HK galloper King Oberon ( Divine Prophet) and winning daughters, the stakes placed Butter Blonde (Choisir) and Vidia ( Proisir) along with the latter's full sister Valkyrian who is yet to race.
Butter Blonde's Justify colt was sold from the Vinery draft for $200,000 to KPA Thoroughbreds at Inglis Easter.
Back to Ballet Society - she produced only one other daughter, her last foal Mia Ballerina ( Cosmic Force), twice a winner and thrice placed from nine starts. Retained by China Horse Club, this young mare is yet to produce her first foal.
She was one of three stakes winners produced by her dam Centuria, a daughter of supreme broodmare sire Centaine. The others were WFA gallopers of the highest class, dual G1 winner Cent Home ( Lord Ballina) and his full brother Studebaker who won the G2 VRC Turnbull Stakes.
This is a branch of family 5-h coming through Centuria's dam Winta by the Vieux Manoir grandson Ramsin, out of Vera Cruz, a daughter of Blue Hen Vali (Sunny Boy)
To Vieux Manoir himself, Vali foaled 3 x G1 winner and legendary sire Val De Loir who we revere in our part of the world as the second damsire of the great Zabeel (out of Lady Giselle by Nureyev (5-h)
Aurum Belle’s branch of this globally dominant family descends from taproot mare Simon’s Shoes through Carpet Slipper to Her Slipper (Tetratema), one of a number of half sisters who all founded important families of their own.
Aurum Belle is bred
Northern Dancer 5m,5m x 5m
Danzig 4m x 5m
Canny Lad 4f x 4f
Snitzel has a liking for Stravinsky - his dual G1 winning sprint superstar and successful sire Russian Revolution carries the cross as does the up and coming WA based sire Splintex, who also descends from a Centaine mare.
An interesting factor in this pedigree comes through Aurum Belle's fourth dam Winta (FR)
She carried 4f x 3m inbreeding to the influential stallion Teleferique, through the closely related sires Le Haar and Cobalt, great grandson and grandson of Blue Hen Armoise respectively.
This is the female line of Snippets which descends from the Epsom Oaks winner Ghuznee, also Telerefique's ancestress.
Century is a member of the wider 20 family which is also quite prominent in the damlines of Green Desert and Snitzel.
The 2026 Karrakatta Plate will be one of the best editions of WA's historic juvenile contest seen in years. Who will prevail?
