More than a decade after Darley took over the Ingham family’s Woodlands Stud, the families that were nurtured over many generations by Woodlands are still producing with the latest being the Exceed And Excel debutant Destination who opened his winning account over 1000 metres at Kembla Grange on Saturday.
Destination descends from the family of one of the most popular horses to carry the all cerise – and no it’s not Lonhro or Octagonal.
The fourth dam of Destination is the Imperial Prince mare Secret Blessing who is the dam of the cult hero Holy Roller.
Now Holy Roller was a very good racehorse who won 12 races including the Group II Waterford Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley but for many fans the joy came when barrier attendants had to get him into the stalls.
This horse was huge. The son of Sanction even has a youtube tribute page, which happily shows he had a wonderful career after racing.
Besides Holy Roller Secret Blessing produced the talented Crown Jester mare Genuflect. A 7-time winner Genuflect left four winners highlighted by the top-class Hosannah.
One of the leading performers by Octagonal, Hosannah was the joint third top filly on the 2000-01 Australasian 2YO Classification. Her six wins included the Group II AJC Surround Stakes and Group II STC Queen of the Turf Stakes, (which have since been elevated to Group ), Group II Magic Night Stakes and Group III VRC Rose of Kingston Stakes. She was also placed in the Group 1 Flight Stakes and was fourth in the Golden Slipper.
Given an honourable pension earlier this year, Hosannah is the dam of the Group II Magic Night Stakes winner Altar (Commands) as well as Destination’s unraced dam Heaven (Medaglia D'Oro) who was sold by Godolphin for $70,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She was carrying filly by Territories (IRE) and was covered by Sebring last year and went back to the same sale this year where she made $45,000 to the bid of River Junction.
