Extreme Pride wins the first on Caulfield Cup Day.
Caulfield Cup-The Everest Saturday proved to be another ‘good day at the office’ for Sledmere Stud when Extreme Pride landed the first race on the card at Caulfield in Melbourne and Zofonic Dancer won on the Eagle Farm program in Brisbane.
Both graduates of Sledmere Stud’s sales operation sold in consecutive years by Magic Millions, Extreme Pride and Zofonic Dancer advanced their respective racing career in very positive fashion with two copybook performances.
Extreme Pride managed to chase down a tearaway leader to claim the $125,000 MRC Keno Classic Handicap over 1700m. Having won her previous three outings leading into the contest, the progressive 4-year-old daughter of I Am Invincible made it four straight wins since the beginning of the 2019/20 racing season and is realising her full potential at a timely stage of the lightly-raced mare’s spring carnival campaign.
Sold to Boomer Bloodstock P/L & Murray Thoroughbreds at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Extreme Pride is trained by Danny O’Brien on behalf of Murray Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd, Bill Duncan Bloodstock Pty Ltd & Mrs S J Murray and hails from a celebrated ‘Woodlands’ family that features multiple Group 1 winner Sports.
Extreme Pride (l) and Zofonic Dancer (r) as yearlings
Later in the same afternoon, Zofonic Dancer took his earnings through the quarter-of-a million-dollars mark with the seventh win of his successful racing career.
A 5-year-old son of Zoffany (Ire) purchased by bloodstock agent Paul Willetts and trainer Robert Heathcote for $87,500 at the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Zofonic Dancer races for Mrs V A Heathcote, Mrs T R Cross, Mrs J M West, Mrs R Cantore, Mrs P N Beesley, Mrs A J Di Tommaso & Mrs V A Cameron and has now earned $283,775 by virtue of a series of wins at the Sunshine Coast, Doomben and Eagle Farm, as well as a further four placings.
The style of both victories posted by the Sledmere graduates suggested that Extreme Pride and Zofonic Dancer are in particularly good shape at this present time and more than capable of proving to be a running advertisement for the stud’s sales team in at least their next few starts to come.