Talented five year old sprinter Immortal Bliss charged through the wintery conditions on Saturday to romp in the Listed Belmont Newmarket (1200m) by almost three lengths.
His impressive performance - and a peach of a ride by jockey Lucy Fiore - brought up the eighth career win and second black type victory for the son of I Am Immortal, after he took the Listed Beaufine Stakes over 1000m when resuming in early July.
A fast closing and luckless fifth to Fluro Neuro ( Gingerbread Man) last start in the HG Bolton Sprint saw the Dan Morton trained Immortal Bliss well fancied to rejoin the winners list, with only Simon Miller's smart mare Madhi Girl (Winning Rupert) withWilliam Pike in the saddle, ahead of him in the Belmont Newmarket betting.
The HG Bolton runner up Snowdome ( Rommel) had plenty of fans, with support for the favourite's stablemate Twisted Steel ( another Rommel).
On a heavy track and as driving rain began to fall the field got away, and Fluro Neuro down on the rail missed the start, making his task difficult from the outset!
The speedy Puli ( Dick Turpin) and Final Siren (I'm All The Talk) got the best of beginnings and went forward to contest the lead, with Snowdome parked in behind them.
Immortal Bliss settled just ahead of midfield in a good spot and travelled beautifully throughout, while Madhi Girl went back as is her usual racing style, but was left with plenty to do in the soggy conditions.
At the 700m Puli strode out strongly by a length and a half to Final Siren, with Snowdome now two lengths adrift of him.
Immortal Bliss was about to ease off the heels of roughies Man Crush (Manhattan Rain) and Jaz Session (Sessions), and as the field swung into the home straight Pike hooked Madhi Girl to the extreme outside in search of the best ground. Twisted Steel followed the same path but neither could get the traction they were looking for!
At the 250m Puli was starting to paddle and Final Siren swept past him to hit the front, but all eyes were on Immortal Bliss and Fiore as they grabbed a dream run and shot up the rails to burst to the lead.
It was game over for the opposition as Immortal Bliss, relishing the heavy, stormed away from his rivals to win comfortably by two and a half lengths
Snowdome fought on valiantly as he always does to take second from Final Siren, who stuck on well for third with Man Crush showing a glimpse of his old self to take fourth ahead of Twisted Steel.
“We probably had conditions in our favour, he's got good wet track form,” said Dan Morton after the race.
“ That wasn't an issue, but to be honest I said to Lucy before the race just go as wide as you can! because it's getting pretty torn up”.
“But she's ridden a few more winners than I have, and she got it right.
"I don't know that he's improved, he's been a good horse for a long time. He's just in a nice vein of form at the moment. I'm not really sure about the Idyllic Prince Stakes ( in two weeks time) or the Golden Saddle (eight weeks).”
“We were tinkering with putting him aside after his last start and looking at Kalgoorlie. We'll just let the dust settle and make a plan. He can probably go there (to the paddock) at some point, just for a bit of a reset. It’s all about timing obviously, but if the Golden Saddle is where we're going, we'll get it right.”
“He's got all the attributes of a proper horse.”
Jockey Lucy Fiore was pleased with her charge.
“He jumped great and it was just about working out where we sat and getting cover, it worked out really well. We were trying to get to the outside of the track but I just had too much horse!” said the star hoop.
Immortal Bliss has come of age in his second preparation for the Morton stable and his record now reads 21 - 8 -3- 4 for career earnings of $413,785.
The talented galloper is the third stakes winner for Swettenham Stud's I Am Immortal, and is a homebred for his owner Sam Scuderi.
The gelding began his racing career in Adelaide with trainer Peter Hardacre and won twice as a two year old, 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 newly minted five year old looks like a real contender for the $1m Goldfields slot race, The Golden Saddle.
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 now 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.
With his Belmont Newmarket win Immortal Bliss has kicked off the new season in fine style for his sire I Am Immortal!
G2 winner McGaw and dual G3 winner Athanatos are the stallion’s other stakes winners to date, 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.
