After finishing 2nd in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup in October Lunar Flare headed to Flemington where she took out the Group 3 Bart Cummings at Flemington. It gave her a golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup but she had already qualified.
During October through to March we have had provincial winners with Katsu, Magic Time, Scottish Gold, Silver Up, Pride Of Galway, Tolpuddle, Marigny, Son Of Solly, Miss Subtly & Nixie.
Cup week at Flemington had good and bad times for us.
Derby Day
C’est Magique ran outstanding to finish second in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes beaten by In Secret.
Cardinal Gem ran a top race to finish 10th in the Golden Eagle at Rosehill, giving his large ownership group a massive thrill.
Cup Day
We started off with such high hopes but unfortunately Lunar Flare was scratched the morning of the great race with a heel bruise.
There was some consolation at the end of the day in the last race with Vespertine taking out the Listed MSS Security Sprint in great style, having finished 2nd in the Group 3 Tressaday last year it was fantastic to get a Stakes win with this daughter of Epaulette. There was some treasure at the end of the rainbow.
Final Day
Magic Time became the first stakes winner for Hellbent taking out the Listed Amanda Elliott. It was an outstanding effort to win this race at Flemington just two and a half weeks after taking out her maiden win at Pakenham.
Heading into 2023 we started off with Rose Quartz finishing second in the Listed Doveton Stakes at Caulfield adding valuable black type to this Written Tycoon mare. She followed that on with a 4th in the Listed Kensington Stakes at Flemington and then a 3rd in the Listed Christmas Stakes at Sandown. She then added a Group 3 second placing in the time honoured Standish handicap at Flemington.
City winners since October have come with the feats of Devils Fiddle winning at Moonee Valley, Ebony King saluting twice at Sandown, Tick Tock Lady at Moonee Valley & Sandown and British Columbia at Sandown and Flemington and import Rivaport at Sandown.
To start off the Autumn Carnival we had a great start with Marharba winning the Listed Talindert Stakes at Flemington.
The 4th of March was a great day for the stable with a 2 state Group 2 double.
Passive Aggressive couldn’t have been more impressive off a 6 month break to win the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Randwick, beating multiple Group 1 winner Eduardo by the barest possible margin with Everest winner Giga Kick a further 1.5 lengths in 3rd place. It was a very outstanding return for this talented mare bringing her record to 5 wins from 6 starts.
It was fantastic to see Nonconformist back to his best winning the Group 2 Blamey Stakes at Flemington by 2 and a quarter lengths. This homebred gelding by Rebel Raider has now won over 1.9 million dollars for his connections.
We look forward to both Nonconformist and Lunar Flare heading towards the Group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington on the 25th of March.
Maharba ran a fantastic race to run second in the Group 3 Pago Pago Stakes at Rosehill. He now heads to the Group 1 Sires Produce at Randwick on the 1st of April.
On the first day of the Championships we aim to have Passive Aggressive, Magic Time & Maharba all racing for the rich prizemoney on offer.
We are so excited as so far this racing season from our small stable of 30 boxes to have had 1 x Group 1 second placing, 2 x Group 2 winners and 1 second, One Group 3 winner as well as 2 second placings and 4 x Listed winners, 2 x seconds and 1 third placing.