Of the nine races conducted on Super Saturday at Ascot, six winners were either bred or sold in Western Australia, headlined by the impressive Group 2 Western Australian Guineas winner Man Booker, further highlighting the strength of the local breeding industry.
Five of those six results were at stakes level and while Man Booker’s victory in the Guineas had many talking, so did that of Bob and Sandra Peters’ homebred Neverland, a winner of the Listed Carbine Club of WA Stakes, who could now head towards the Group 1 Kingston Town Classic in two weeks.
Sold at the Magic Millions Perth Winter Yearling Sale from the draft of Korilya Stud, Man Booker (pictured above) was secured by his trainer Dan Morton for just $25,000, with his victory in the Guineas taking his earnings to over $480,000.
Bred by Ms E Giles, Man Booker is the first stakes winner for the now deceased Discorsi, himself a $1 million Inglis Easter Yearling Sale graduate as well as a half-brother to triple Group 1 winner Sea Siren (Fastnet Rock).
The lone stakes winner out of the unraced Danetime mare Morine, Man Booker’s victory was his fourth from just seven starts with trainer Dan Morton confident there are bigger things on the horizon for the talented three-year-old.
The race prior to the Guineas, the Listed Placid Ark Stakes also went the way of a Magic Millions graduate, this time to three-year-old filly Let It Slip.
One of two stakes winners at the meeting for Arrowfield Stud’s Not A Single Doubt, the filly was knocked down to trainer Daniel Pearce for $130,000 from the draft of Gervase Park Stud as a yearling.
Never outside the top four in all her six racetrack starts, the improving filly was racing at stakes level for the first occasion and after coming from the tail of the field, pulled away to record a length victory.
Bred by Dr DP Gales, Let It Slip is the first foal out of the General Nediym mare Oopsy Doopsy whose second, and final foal Gangbuster is by Western Australia’s leading sire Blackfriars.
From the family of Group 1 VRC Oaks winner Hollow Bullet, interestingly Let It Slip is bred on a similar cross to this year’s Group 1 VRC Oaks winner Jameka – by a Danehill line stallion out of a General Nediym mare.
