Sun Stud is certainly enjoying their time in the sun, with brilliant results coming through for their young gun stallion Squamosa and the ever-consistent stakes producer, Magnus.
Outstanding Squamosa gelding Order Of Command showed his class again with an electrifying win over 1000 metres at Flemington in the Festive Season Sprint, with the galloper stepping out for the first time since the carnival victory.
The high-class sprinter camped off a hot pace and then exploded in the final furlong to score an authoritative victory for regular jockey, Damien Oliver.
"He's the perfect racehorse, he can take a nice sit and he's got a good turn of foot. He's a great horse, an explosive type," Oliver said.
Danny O'Brien's galloper who has won three of his nine starts, obviously has an affinity with the Flemington straight (5:2-2-0) as he has advanced his overall career record to 10:4-3-1 and $219,450 in prizemoney.
"He's been down at Thirteenth Beach just taking it easy, waiting for a suitable race," O'Brien said. "He's a talented horse, and it's great to see him bring his top form to the races."
Order Of Command was not only visually impressive, he smashed the clock too – running his last 600 metres in 33.16 seconds and the final 200 metres in a race best 11.23 seconds.
"He really hits the afterburners when he gets to the clocktower here. He just needed a little bit of room and when he found it he hit the line really strongly," said O'Brien.
The Squamosa four-year-old is already stakes placed behind boom runner Nature Strip and he certainly has his hoof on the till to register a black-type success this preparation.
The second named foal out of the Commands mare Commanding Angel, Order Of Command was bred by Mr WH Johnson, Mr S Paino, Mr J Swinnerton and Mr G Peer.
While another Squamosa gelding on the up is the three-year-old Celestial King. Making all the running he recorded a stylish victory over 1200 metre at Seymour.
Placed on debut as a two-year-old at Caulfield last season, Celestial King has always been held in high regard by the Grahame Begg stable.
"The plan was to let him roll to the front, dictate the race and skip away before the turn. He's a fast sprinter and Clayton Douglas rode him a treat," said Begg.
"And the boys get the VOBIS, which makes it even better!" added the elated Caulfield based trainer.
Celestial King was bred by Brendan Murray and is the fourth named foal out of his Diamond Dane mare, Smokin' Jewel.
With lucrative VOBIS and VOBIS Gold bonuses added to the winner's cheque, connections will take home a sizeable sum – a figure north of $36,000. Which equates to a huge return on investment for a sire standing at an advertised service fee of $6,600 inc GST.
The exciting son of Not A Single Doubt has covered in excess of 100 mares again in 2018 – giving him a covering total exceeding 300 mares in the last three seasons. The increased mare numbers will give Squamosa plenty of firepower for the future.
While Magnus is having another stellar season and now racking up his 16thstakes winner when the Mick Price-trained Princess Of Queens won the Listed SAJC Christmas Handicap over 1200m at Morphettville.
South Australian hoop Dom Tourneur guided his mount to a narrow but decisive victory in the $100,000 feature race and the daughter of Magnus now boasts an overall record from 23 starts of six wins and six placings, with $335,000 in prizemoney.
It was an important win for the five-year-old mare, who was previously Group 3 placed at Caulfield last year and she will now be a valuable black type mare in the breeding barn next season. A homebred for Chris Marks, Princess Of Queens is the fifth foal out of the Zabeel mare, Tristabeel, whose dam Consult (Bletchingly) is a daughter of the champion race mare Research (Imperial Prince) the Australian Horse of the Year & Champion 3YO in Australasia in 1988-89. Her 9 wins included the AJC Derby, AJC Oaks, VRC Oaks and AJC Flight Stakes.
Tristabeel clearly has an affinity with Magnus, having produced three stakes horses from three mating's with the leading Victorian sire – with the others being Duke Of Brunswick and Prince Of Brooklyn.
With 50 individual winners and in excess of $2,200,000 in progeny earnings already on the board in 2018/19, Magnus is on track to better his 2017/18 season – which yielded 103 individual winners and over $6,200,000 in stakes.
Magnus, who stood at Sun Stud for a fee of of $19,800 (inc GST), is also the sire of Group 1 winners Malaguerra, Magnifisio and Great Shot and has four colts catalogued at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
TBV NEws for Sun Stud
