Written by Jessica Owers
Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
While Gerry Harvey had his hands full on Tuesday with the Magic Millions 2YOs in Training Sale, south of the border at Hawkesbury, one of his blueblood fillies was posting a two-win streak for Bjorn Baker.
Three-year-old Laroupe, a Fastnet Rock filly, won the sixth race on the Hawkesbury card with Dylan Gibbons aboard, defeating I Am Brazen (Brazen Beau) and Passistas (Exosphere) by 1.32l and 1.78l respectively.
On the Heavy 10, her winning time for the 1100 metres was 1:04.61, the last 600 metres in 34.67s.
It brought Laroupe’s tally to four starts, two wins and a second, the filly breaking her maiden last time out at Newcastle on October 11. However, the beauty for Harvey was that Laroupe is the only filly from his G1 Oakleigh Plate-winning mare Shamal Wind (Dubawi {Ire}), who died two years ago.
“We’ve had a high opinion of this filly since day one,” said Harvey’s racing manager, Luke McDonald. “She got into the system as a 2-year-old and Bjorn has given her a massive rap. We threw her into the deep end at her second start and she wasn’t quite ready for it so early in her career, so we put her out for a good spell after that and she’s just developed really, really well since that.”
Laroupe’s second start was the Listed Woodlands S. at Scone back in May, where she was unplaced behind the eventual winner, the Godolphin filly In Secret (I Am Invincible). In Secret is the favourite for this Saturday’s G1 Coolmore Stud S., so the form is there.
Shamal Wind, dam of Laroupe, when racing | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“Laroupe has come back this time a bigger, stronger, thicker horse, and we think she’ll go to a high level in her career,” McDonald said. “We hope she’ll be heading to stakes races in her near future.”
No concrete plans have been made about how Laroupe might get to that stakes level, with McDonald confirming they were taking each day as it comes. It’s possible she’ll race on Saturday fortnight, but she’ll climb through her grades slowly.
“Because she’s a 3-year-old, we want her to face her own age and sex, and she will be very competitive in those races,” McDonald said.
Luke McDonald | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
The last of her kind
Laroupe is the fourth of five foals that Shamal Wind delivered before she died in 2020, all colts bar this filly.
During her 25-start career, Shamal Wind won eight races and was placed seven times. Her prime victory was the Oakleigh Plate in 2015, but she was also a Listed winner on three occasions and placed multiple times in the likes of the G2 Caulfield Sprint, G3 Begonia Belle S. and G3 How Now S.
On retiring, Shamal Wind was consigned to the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare S. by Newgate Farm, where she was bought by Harvey’s Baramul Stud for $1.2 million.
“You don’t get them any more well-bred than Laroupe,” McDonald said. “She’s by a Champion sire in Fastnet Rock out of a mare that won the Oakleigh Plate, and these are the types of fillies that we like to keep to race, enhancing their pedigrees with those lucrative stakes races ahead of a breeding career with us.”
“You don’t get them any more well-bred than Laroupe. She’s by a Champion sire in Fastnet Rock out of a mare (Shamal Wind) that won the Oakleigh Plate, and these are the types of fillies that we like to keep to race....” - Luke McDonald
Harvey bought Shamal Wind in foal to Redoute’s Choice. She’d already had a colt by Sea The Stars (Ire), and another by Redoute’s Choice.
The Sea The Stars colt, later named The Driller, was sold by Newgate Farm to Godolphin for $325,000, while the first of the Redoute’s Choice youngsters, Seguso, was a 2019 Inglis Australian Easter yearling, selling to Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock for $150,000.
The second of the Redoute’s Choice colts was passed in at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2020 and, at the same sale this year, the last of the Shamal Wind progeny went through the ring. He was an I Am Invincible colt that sold to Proven Thoroughbreds and O’Dea/Hoysted Racing for $150,000.
The Driller
In the middle, Laroupe was the mare’s only filly and, as such, she’s a valuable prospect to Harvey,
“She’s a very special girl because we can’t breed to Shamal Wind anymore, so she’s all we’ve got,” McDonald said. “She’s the last of her dam, so we’re very excited to be able to race her and, all being well, to breed from her when that time comes.”
