News - DE GAULLE (AUS)
Prolific Victorian nursery, BOMBORA DOWNS, is heading into the 2024 breeding season with arguably its strongest roster to date.
Great stories always come out of Warrnambool's famous May carnival and day one of this year's edition produced a beauty - trainer Mark O'Donnell with his two horse stable able to upstage his bigger rivals with his talented four-year-old Prince Sonic recording a tough all the way victory in the 1200m BM70 contest.
It was a very nice turn of foot shown by the promising De Venus at Sale today, the Mark Webb trained four-year-old son of Bombora Downs' De Gaulle racing away to an easy win at just his third outing.
An impressive winner on debut last spring, De Gaulle flyer – Prince Sonic – led throughout for a command performance at Warrnambool on Tuesday … winning by over 2 lengths.
One of the interesting sales on the final day of the recent Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale was lot 720 - an imposing chestnut claimed for $50,000 by Gai Waterhouse, Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds.
There are just two horses in the Warrnambool stables of Mark O'Donnell and whilst one is ten and the other four, they have something in common - both are talented horses who have been given every chance to succeed due to the patience and horsemanship skills of their trainer.
The accolades were flying for the talented Remarque after he lowered the colours of some of Australia's best sprinters in Saturday's Group III Concorde Stakes at Randwick.
Turning 23 this year, Darley heavy hitter Exceed and Excel was the Champion Australian Sire in 2012/2013 and has left over 200 stakes-winners worldwide during a long and glittering stud career and the future of his legacy as a sire of sires rests largely with a trio of Group I winning colts.
It was a tough and brave performance by Madame Du Gast at Geelong on Friday, the lightly raced and promising chestnut back in winning form having not had the best of luck in the lead-up - doing a great job in demanding conditions.
Blue-blood Exceed and Excel stallion De Gaulle posted a debut winner at Moe on Saturday in Rosa’s Revenge and he followed up with another at Cranbourne on Thursday when Bonjour de Gaulle saluted in style.
From a handful of runners, the young Bombora Downs stallion De Gaulle notched his third winner at Moe on Saturday, with the debutant Rosa’s Revenge proving a class above in the 1114m maiden for three-year-old fillies.
The Trevor Rogers-trained filly Madame Du Gast made a winning debut at Flemington on Friday to credit her sire De Gaulle with his first winner and provide a timely update for a full-sister heading to the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.
The top 10 first season sires (by earnings) this season have produced 13 individual stakes winners so far, equalled only once in the last 10 seasons – 2018 – so we thought we’d check the trial results for what might be waiting in the wings for what’s looking an exceptional bunch.
She’s yet to hit the race track, but blue eyed and white faced Sapphire Sioux has become something of a sensation after being unveiled on social media last week.
A half-brother to Golden Slipper winner Estijaab, blue-blooded Exceed and Excel stallion De Gaulle has produced one of the most eye-catching foals of the season from his first small crop of foals for Quilly Park.
Dual Group One winning sprinters Exceed And Excel and Response meet.
De Gaulle – the half brother to recent Golden Slipper winner Estijaab, will stand this season at Bombora Downs on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
When Richard Anderson of Quilly Park in Victoria decided to purchase a young well-bred stallion and stand it in conjunction with John Pratt at Brooker Park last year, he could never have predicted he would be standing the half-brother to a Golden Slipper winner.
Saturday’s opener at Randwick serves up a number of exceptionally credentialed bluebloods whose connections will be hoping to be players in the top two-year-old races this autumn.