A cracking edition of the 2026 Listed WATC Beaufine Stakes had Perth punters and racing fans up and about all week in anticipation of the mid-winter contest.
In a race of many chances, last year's victor Repossession ( Sessions) was sent out favourite to defend his crown against a bevy of high quality sprinters aiming to snatch it from him.
His rivals for the Listed 1000m handicap included the topweight and $1.6m earner Oscar's Fortune (Rich Enuff) and three offspring of the Commands stallion Rommel - dual G3 sprinter Snowdome, up and coming three year old Twisted Steel who was looking for his first stakes win and was the subject of much market support, and 16/1 shot Desert Whisper.
Also attracting admirers was the reigning Placid Ark heroine, three year old Luana Miss ( Bivouac), with a bit of “Pike factor” seeing a late plunge for Twisted Steel's stablemate and first up specialist Madhi Girl (WInning Rupert).
Talented mare Jaz Session (Sessions) had fans, resuming from a well deserved first stakes win in the summer, but there was one horse the smart money had been coming for all week and that was the Dan Morton trained Immortal Bliss.
The four year old son of I Am Immortal had been an eye catcher at the trials while being readied for his second preparation for the stable, and was steadily backed in from $19 on Thursday to start at around $7, despite drawing wide.
Well, as it turned out the smart money was spot on!
As you'd expect, it was game on for young and old from the get-go, and the big Beaufine field put on a spectacle that lit up a grey winter afternoon.
They scorched out of the gates - all but for Repossession, who was left flat footed at the jump and was immediately relegated to last.
Those who had backed the favourite could only wince and pray for a miracle as the grey Snowdome, Desert Whisper and Sinful Living (Safeguard) all hurtled forward to dispute the lead.
First emergency Richanco ( Rich Enuff) had gained a run and he was up there on the frantic pace with the old boy Puli ( Dick Turpin), the Beaufine winner of 2024, at his side.
Twisted Steel from a horror draw was caught racing wide outside Oscar's Fortune, with Immortal Bliss on his tail and the mares Jaz Session and Madhi Girl paired behind them.
Sean Mc Gruddy had no option but to sool Repossession around the field in an attempt to get into the race. Luana Miss was starting to stoke up behind him, and everything else was out of contention as the home turn loomed in the blink of an eye!
Sinful Living swung into the straight and led them for home in the Beaufine, with Desert Whisper and Snowdome starting to run out of gas.
Twisted Steel and Immortal Bliss were rocketing down the outside, with Repossession still coming.
Immortal Bliss with Lucy Fiore urging him on had a full head of steam up, and with 54 kg he powered past and away from Twisted Steel to win by just under a length.
A gallant Repossession held third from Luana Miss, who came home like a train from the back of the field to just grab fourth over Jaz Session.
Though the track had favoured leaders earlier in the day, the outside proved the place to be for the latter half of the program, and the first two home in the Beaufine Stakes took full advantage.
Whichever way you looked at it though, the win of Immortal Bliss was super impressive!
The gelding is the third stakes winner for Swettenham Stud's I Am Immortal, and is a homebred for Mr. S Scuderi.
He began his racing career in Adelaide with trainer Peter Hardacre.
He won on debut at Gawler as a two year old, and again on the Morphettville Parks track before contesting the Redelva and Tobin Bronze Stakes at three during the Adelaide carnival without success.
Immortal Bliss was then transferred west to Dan Morton, and kicked off for the new stable in style with two wins, two seconds and a victory in Kalgoorlie in lesser company before going for a spell. In the summer he won and placed twice at Ascot, and despite having to shoulder big weights, his steady progression was obvious. Now the four year old is a stakes winner, and against some pretty hot company too!
Immortal Bliss has now raced 19 times for 7 wins and 7 placings which have garnered him $341,660 with the prospect of plenty more to come.
“That was awesome. We've always had a big opinion of this horse since he joined the stable, and we were feeling confident today that if the race set up the right way he'd be hard to hold out late,” Morton's racing manager BJ Ryan said after the race.
“ Everything worked out, and he went enormous.
“He's a beautiful big horse, he's matured into himself now. He's been very lightly raced and very well looked after by his previous stable. I really think he's going to be a sprinter that takes the next step. In my mind I feel like he's going to be a carnival player later this year.
“Hopefully he will contest the next two winter sprints at 1200m ( the HG Bolton on 25th July and Belmont Newmarket in early August) then hopefully we might aim him up at something like the Golden Saddle (slot race) in Kalgoorlie, where he has raced well before.”
Jockey Lucy Fiore was keen to give all praise for the victory to her charge.
“We really didn't get any luck, that was just pure ability, and he put them away. He sat four wide, credit to the horse” said the star hoop.
“ I had the option, at the 600/700m mark, do I drag back and get some cover or just bite the bullet and keep going with the flow. Once I gave him a kick, I don't know if it's because they'd gone so fast they were all stopping, but he just ate them up”.
“I straightened up with a lap full of horse!”
Immortal Bliss is the second foal and the only one to race from his dam, who was picked up cheaply for $5,000 via a MM Online Sale in July 2021.
She is Top Of The Charts, an unraced daughter of Goree Park's G1 BTC Cup winner Your Song (Fastnet Rock) and she was one of five named foals ( two winners) out of the G3 Adrian Knox Stakes heroine Miss Darcey by Hussonet.
Top Of The Charts met with some misfortune at stud, before producing a Lucky Vega filly last spring, and was then returned to I Am Immortal.
Miss Darcey was the only stakes winner from the Widden Stakes heroine Miss Bussell ( Danzero) and was a half sister to four winners, including Electric Charge by Charge Forward who is the dam of the 2025 G1 Winterbottom Stakes winning stallion Libertad.
Clearly this family loves it in the West!
Libertad upset mighty Overpass in a memorable edition of the historic WA sprint, and the son of Russian Revolution, who was a dual Group winner at two, will serve his first book of mares this season at Blue Gum Farm in Victoria.
Notably, Libertad is the first Australian sire to go to stud since the all-conquering Lonhro who can boast Group race victories at ages 2,3,4 & 5, that's a handy little stat - and an encouraging sign for his relative Immortal Bliss, who seems to be just coming into his full potential.
This is the family of the NZ G1 winning Sir Tristram daughter Lurestina, also ancestress of dual G2 winning sprint mare Hurried Choice.
Lurestina was thought highly enough of by Arrowfield to be sent to Japan in 2001 for a date with the legend, Sunday Silence.
The resulting foal was a colt born in Australia named Main Force. He never raced, and was exported back to Japan at four years of age.
Lurestina's dam Noelani ( Battle Waggon) was dam of three stakes winners, and her dam Amelia (Wilwyn) produced the 1969 WATC Belgravia Stakes winning Colt Prince Of Babylon.
This is a branch of family 13-e, which goes back to Eryholme, the ancestress of the breedshaping sires Fairway and his half brother Pharos.
Immortal Bliss is bred
Danehill x 4m,5m
Danzig 5m,4m x 5m,6m
Mr Prospector 6f x 5f, 4m sex balanced
His sire I Am Immortal was a precocious juvenile who won both the Listed Blue Diamond Preview and the G3 Prelude. The son of champion sire I Am Invincible is out of the speedy G2 Ad Valorem (Danzig) daughter Meliora and is a full brother to Listed winner Godfather.
Meliora is bred to speedsire In Reality 4m x 5m and to Never Bend 5f x 5f so I Am Immortal's combination of Danzig with his next two damsires Fasliyev and Warning is all about speed! However further back on his damline we see Sadler’s Wells and the Belmont Stakes winner Stage Door Johnny.
I Am Immortal's sixth dam Aces Swinging was one of four winning full sisters to Mr Prospector's sire Raise A Native, which makes the two Mr P daughters in the pedigree of Immortal Bliss key players.
Fuji Kiseki sex balances In Reality who sired his grand dam Marston Mill, and I Am Invincible's sire Green Desert duplicates the Danzig / Never Bend daughter cross found in Ad Valorem. He also sex balances Sir Ivor, whose male line via Sir Tristram appears twice in the dam of Immortal Bliss.
Ad Valorem's third damsire Proud Clarion is of special interest for Sadler's Wells being by Hail To Reason and bred x 2f to Djeddah the sire of Lalun, giving I Am Immortal a big concentration of this blood through his dam. I Am Immortal also carries Hail To Reason son Roberto.
Top Of The Charts contributes Hail To Reason son Halo, who boosts the Almahoud inbreeding of Danehill x 2.
Hussonet contributes Hoist The Flag and his family (5-i) traces back to the same taproot mare as the family of Djeddah’s sire Djebel (5-j) - also a major linebreeding subject here through My Babu.
Immortal Bliss carries sex balanced duplications of Raise A Native, Round Table and Nijinsky and is linebred to Blue Hen Flower Bowl via the full brothers His Majesty x 2 and Graustark.
Immortal Bliss joins G2 winner McGaw and dual G3 winner Athanatos as I Am Immortal's career stakes winners and all have earned black type victories this season, while Immortal Star, More Than Hope, Portarlington and The Troubleshooter are stakes placed.
I Am Immortal stands at Swettenham Stud on a fee of $8,800.
