It has a great few days for the Sledmere Stud yearling graduates, with three winners saluting for their respective connections.
Kicking the run off at Royal Randwick on Saturday was the Gary Portelli-trained Dio D’Oro, a son of Medagalia d’Oro out of the stakes performing Exceed And Excel mare Seeking Attention.
Purchased from the Sledmere Stud draft at the Magic Millions yearling sale by Darby Racing and De Burg Equine for $210,000 – the colt (pictured left) was having his first start this campaign and looks set to step up in class.
“He has come back in real good order. Obviously there was a bit of concern about the track first up, but we have had two good trials and I kept the blinkers off him all preparation to have him right for the 1000m today,” said Portelli.
“There are some big races coming up in the spring, but I said to the boys that if we can just win some races and get some prizemoney in the bank, get his confidence up, we might end up in a good race. He did look good today, he sat four deep for the entire trip and he did run away late,” he said.
A few hours later at Doomben, the Chris Waller-trained Invincibella, a daughter of Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible who highlighted herself as a contender for the upcoming Group 1 Tatts Tiara, with an impressive last stride win in the Group 2 Dane Ripper Stakes.
A winner of the $1 million Magic Millions Fillies And Mare during the January carnival at the Gold Coast, the consistent mare had this race and the Tatts as a target since the day.
Fourth, third and second at her first three runs back from a spell, Invincibella put the writing on the wall and duly delivered with a fast finishing win under James McDonald.
Drawn wide in the big field of 15, she settled back in the field and charged to the line to win the 1350 metre contest by a long neck.
“I thought she was going to run a nice third, then a furlong from home when they started paddling I thought she was a chance of winning and then she sprouted wings,” McDonald said.
“After that win (the MM F & M) we purposely set her for the Tiara and the way she won today showed she’s right on target,” Waller said.
“The Tiara is a race you need to get the timing right so it’s good to have her winning and creeping up to that next grade of a Group One level.”
A $185,000 Magic Millions purchase for Star Thoroughbreds from the Sledmere Stud draft (pictured above left), the mare has the impressive record of six wins and 11 placings from 26 starts with prizemoney in excess of $1.1 million.
With the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, racing headed to Royal Randwick on Monday on the Kensington track, where King’s Trust was the third winner of the weekend for Sledmere Stud’s STA brand.
The Peter and Paul Snowden trained colt was third on debut last month and took improvement from that outing to score a length win in the 1100 metre maiden.
A $190,000 Inglis Classic yearling sale purchase from the Sledmere draft (pictured left) for Snowden Racing, King’s Trust was bred by Sledmere and is the first winner from Rose Tinted, an unraced half-sister by Choisir to Group 3 winner Ready to Attack from Group 1 winner Gaze.
With the sales season pretty much over for the year, the Sledmere Stud team are getting ready in the coming months to foal down the next generation of track stars – and we cant wait!