Standout and Tommy Berry win the Group Two TAB Expressway Stakes (Lisa Grimm)
Some horses just simply live up to their names.
Standout is a perfect example.
Racing against the older horses in Saturday’s Group Two TAB Expressway Stakes at Royal Randwick – among them the 3-time Group One winner and hot favourite, Alizee – Standout was just that, showing his rivals a clean set of hooves as he raced away to score comfortably over the 1200m journey.
First sighted last August in a Gosford maiden, Standout has won four from five starts – including the Listed Heritage Stakes in September – with his only ‘blemish’ being a second in the Group Two Roman Consul Stakes.
A flashy chestnut with a flaxen mane and big white blaze, Standout was bred and is raced by George Altomonte’s Corumbene Stud, whose familiar orange, brown spots and white sleeves have been carried by many a luminary of the Australian turf, including Standout’s full brother – the Golden Slipper winner, Overreach – along with Champion 2YO Filly, Hasna.
(Corumbene also bred and sold Golden Slipper winner and sire, Sebring and Blue Diamond winner, True Jewels).
Among 165 stakes winners for Darley’s Exceed And Excel, Standout hails from the winning Snippets mare, Bahia, who has produced five winners from six to race (two stakes winners and the Group placed 2YO, Outreach), and is a half sister to Blue Diamond winner and sire, Reward For Effort and 4-time stakes winner Consular.
Selling under the Corumbene banner, Bahia has a full brother up for grabs at the 2020 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April.
“It’s not hard to work out why Standout ended up with that name,” Corumbene Stud manager, Toby Frazer, explains. “He has been a cracking type from day one.
“George would phone me and ask how the colt was going and I’d always respond by saying ‘he’s a standout!’. Importantly, he’s got a great attitude too.
“As for his colouring, he throws back to Rory’s Jester on his mother’s side (Standout’s second dam is Rory’s Jester’s multiple stakes winner Miss Prospect) and I’d imagine that’s where a lot of the speed comes from as well.
“He’s an exciting prospect, especially given what he did on Saturday.
“I told (trainer) Gerald Ryan I was sending him down a very special horse and I’m just glad it turned out that way.”
Based in NSW’s upper Hunter Valley at Dunedoo, Corumbene is home to around 40 mares, while Altomonte usually has some 10 racehorses in work.
Yet despite all the precocity throughout the pedigree, Altomonte wisely decided holding off racing Standout until he was a 3YO.
“Right from the word go he’s showed a ton of ability, but he did a few things wrong early on and it was around this time last year that George said to forget about the autumn and tip him out,” trainer, Gerald Ryan, explains.
“I was confident coming into the Expressway but you don’t know until you try them. Kolding is probably one of the best horses in Australia, Alizee is arguably the best mare and that little white horse (White Moss) never knows how to run a bad race.
“He’s got a Group Two against his name now, but he’s always shown me he has Group One ability and he’s going to have a crack at it this autumn.
“The ($500,000) Canterbury Stakes (over 1300m at Randwick on 7 March) is worth considering and I’ve had luck with Trapeze Artist and Melito, as 3YOs, in the ($2.5 million) TJ Smith Stakes (over the Expressway course and distance on 4 April).
