Cover image courtesy of Sportpix
Rosehill: G2 Missile S., $300,000, 1200m
Sent out favourite I Am Me (I Am Invincible) brought her good trial form to the races with this tough on-pace performance.
Now a dual stakes winner having taken out the Listed Canterbury Classic earlier in the year, she boasts an impressive record with her eight wins from 14 starts.
One of the two-time Australian Champion Sire's 97 stakes winners, I Am Me was bred by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and sold through the Segenhoe Stud draft for $210,000 to Dynamic Syndications and Dean Watt Bloodstock at the 2020 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.
She is the second foal produced by the handy mare Mefnooda (Medaglia D'Oro {USA}) whose five wins from 10 starts included a Caulfield success.
Served last spring by Too Darn Hot (GB), Mefnooda has a yet to race Snitzel 4-year-old called Truro (a NZ$210,000 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka graduate) who has won a couple of trials (one just last week) for the Darryn and Briar Weatherley stable in New Zealand as well as a yet to be named Justify (USA) 2-year-old filly who sold for NZ$55,000 at Karaka last year.
Mefnooda is a half-sister to the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude winner One Last Dance (Encosta De Lago) out of the G3 VRC Thoroughbred Breeders' S. winner One World (Danehill {USA}) from the family of the prolific stallions Storm Cat (USA) and Royal Academy (USA).
Flemington: G3 Aurie's Star H., $200,000, 1200m
Reaffirming his love of the Flemington straight (recording his third win there - his second in stakes company), It'sourtime (Time For War) swept past his rivals out wide to win his fifth race from 21 starts.
A homebred for S Pitts who passed him in for $100,000 at the 2019 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, It'sourtime is one of the stakes winners (from just two crops of 122 live foals) for his late sire, a dual Group 2-winning son of Snitzel.
His dam Zedoble (Zeditave), who died in the spring of 2019, also produced the stakes-placed, multiple city winner Zahspeed (Speed 'N' Power {NZ}).
There is not a great deal of black type in this family with It'sourtime's closest stakes-winning relation being his third dam's half-sister - the wonderful Dual Choice (Showdown {GB}).
Crowned the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of Australia, that popular mare won nine races that now carry Group 1 status and her descendants include the stakes winners Duke Abbey (Lord Seymour {Ire}), King Hoaks (King Charlemagne {USA}), Scales Of Justice (Not A Single Doubt), Present Arms (NZ) (Guns Of Navarone {Ire}) and State of Origin (NZ) (Frenchpark {GB}).
Time For War's dam is bred on a 2 X 4 cross of Sir Tristram (Ire) whilst Zedoble carries a strain of his close relation Mossborough (GB), the terrific mare All Moonshine (GB) (Bobsleigh {GB}) duplicated.
Riccarton Park: G3 Winter Cup, NZ$110,000, 1600m
A fourth G3 Winter Cup winner for the Lisa Latta stable, Belardo Boy (NZ) (Belardo {Ire}) put in the big strides out wide to secure his first victory at stakes level.
A NZ$28,000 purchase for the stable from the Haunui Farm draft at the 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 2), Belardo Boy is the ninth stakes winner for his dual Group 1-winning, former Haunui Farm shuttling sire.
Bred by J E Fokerd and Haunui Farm, he is the second stakes performer for the Group 3-placed, multiple city winner L'Amour (NZ) (Towkay), also dam of the stakes-placed Cheveux (NZ) - also by Belardo (Ire).
Served last spring by Ace High after foaling a filly by Eminent (Ire), L'Amour hails from the family of stakes winners Julinsky Princess (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}), Julinsky Prince (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}), Nudge (Fastnet Rock), Unknown Heights (NZ) (Kaapstad {NZ}), Dontellthewife (NZ) (Volksraad {GB}) and Excuse My French (French Deputy {USA}).
Belardo Boy is a descendant of the influential Democratie (Fr) (Epinard {Fr}) as are the prolific stallions Red Ransom (USA) and Showdown (GB).
