It only seemed fitting that Team Hawkes would win the $150,000 Group III SAJC John Hawkes Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville on Saturday and they did it with regally bred Zoustar gelding Grand Larceny.
A five year-old half-brother to Everest hero Yes Yes Yes, Grand Larceny has been a work in progress and was first up from a spell following a close fifth in a Listed race at Caulfield last November.
Punters rallied to Grand Larceny and he was sent off favourite with Ben Melham to ride and he duly got the cash scoring by the best part of a length.
Grand Larceny was an $800,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Kitchwin Hills draft for PR Funds and runs for a syndicate that includes Werrett Bloodstock, Musk Creek Farm and Rifa Mustang among others.
Bought with hopes of becoming a sire prospect, Grand Larceny might not deliver that outcome, but is putting together a good record with six wins and four placings from 14 starts with prizemoney in excess of $400,000.
“He's well bred, cost a lot of money, he was a colt, the owners were patient and they gelded him and he's only just starting to put it together,” said Wayne Hawkes.
"Not full credit, but a lot of credit goes to Ben Melham. We let him ride a kilo over and I think he only rode half a kilo over because he just knows this horse so well and he's a quirky bugger, make no mistake about it.
“We said to the owners 12 months ago, he's got the ability, but we just really need to be patient and to be fair to Rob Rouse and Mark Player, they said 'don't care, take your time and do what you want to do'.
"If we'd have jammed this horse, he'd be retired as a pony somewhere, and that's honest. We still haven't seen the best of him, but there's a nice race (G1 Goodwood) in a couple of weeks time."
Grand Larceny is a half-brother to $7.1million earner Yes Yes Yes and stkes-placed Dee Nine Elle being the second stakes-winner among seven winners from eight foals to race from Sin Sin Sin, a half-sister by Fantastic Light (USA) to stakes-winners Hot as Hell, Flaming Hot, Craig’s Dragon and to the dam of multiple Group I winning sprinter In Her Time.
A yearling filly by Jacquinot from Sin Sin Sin was passed in at Inglis Premier this year and she has a weanling colt by Ole Kirk and then missed last spring to Zoustar.
Grand Larceny is the 80th stakes-winner for reigning champion sire Zoustar.
