First run in 2009, the restricted Listed 1000m contest that is the Inglis Nursery is one of the features of Saturday’s Randwick card and we take a look at the backgrounds of this group of youngsters.
1 Bohemian Rhapsody
Prague – Invincible Gem (I Am Invincible)
From the second crop of his dual Group 3 winning sire whose best form was at two, Bohemian Rhapsody is the second foal for the classy mare Invincible Gem who was only narrowly beaten at her two two-year-old starts. She went on to win three times in Group company and was Gr.1 placed on two occasions.
Bred on a 4 X 4 cross of the Golden Slipper winner Canny Lad, Bohemian Rhapsody was purchased by his trainers and Belmont Bloodstock for $200,000 at the Inglis Classic.
2 Elio
Ole Kirk – Iconista (Denman)
Bred on a close 3 X 3 cross of the high class 2Y0 Bel Esprit, Elio (bred in Victoria by Murray Thoroughbreds) hails from the second crop of his Caulfield Guineas/Golden Rose winning sire who has done such a good job with his first runners.
Boasting six strains of Vain, two of Marscay and two of Better Boy (a very Australian pedigree!), he is the second foal (the first is unplaced) for the Doomben maiden winner Iconista whose dam is the Listed winner Belcentra whose grandson Burma Star won a Listed race during the recent Flemington carnival.
The Gr.1 winners Black Mamba and Tully Thunder also hail from the family of Elio who made his way through the sales ring on two occasions – fetching $70,000 as a Magic Millions weanling and $250,000 as an Inglis Classic yearling.
3 Internal Affairs
Home Affairs – Kononkop (Pure Prize)
From the debut crop of his dual Gr.1 winning sire (son of I Am Invincible) who found form quickly in classy races at two, Internal Affairs was bred by Morning Rise Stud who remain in the ownership after selling him for $440,000 to Mulberry Racing at the Inglis Melbourne Premier.
Game after showing good pace at his Rosehill debut, he is out of the imported mare Kononkop who won two Gr.1 races in her native Argentina.
Dam of the city winner Justaboom, Kononkop is a half-sister to another Gr.1 winner in Koller out of a Listed winner from the family of the American Gr.1 winners Groovy and Boston Harbor.
4 Star Of Jamaica
Profiteer – Raziel (Per Incanto)
The second runner for her sire who won a different Inglis feature (the Millennium) at two (then splitting Anamoe and Home Affairs in the Todman Stakes), Star Of Jamaica was bred by Spectrum Racing.
Sold for $12,000 at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, he headed to the following year’s Classic where his trainers purchased him for $85,000.
A Gold Coast trial winner, he is the second foal for a three-time provincial winning Per Incanto mare whose closest stakes-winning relation is her grandam’s Macau-based Gr.3 winning grandson Champagne Needed.
5 Vatican
Wootton Bassett – Egyptian Missile (Smart Missile)
This race’s most expensive yearling purchase, this $1.2 million Inglis Easter graduate is by the late Wootton Bassett and he is the first foal for his three-time winning dam who wasn’t far away at her three two-year-old outings.
Her dam was a terrific race mare, the Gr.1 Railway Stakes winner Our Egyptian Raine who did a great job winning ten races – finishing in the placings in Gr.1 races on the same number of occasions.
Eleven of her 12 foals to race have been winners including the dual Gr.3 winner Egyptian Symbol and the smart Hong Kong galloper Strathmore.
Vatican boasts duplications of the influential mares Natalma, Flaming Page and Rough Shod.
6 Sheza Boom
Spirit Of Boom – She Za Boss (Rothesay)
By a stallion proven in his ability to sire early comers, Sheza Boom was bred in Queensland by Telemon Thoroughbreds, purchased by Bloodstock Solutions for $120,000 at the Inglis Classic.
She is the first foal for the good race mare She Za Boss, winner of seven races over sprinting trips with three of her successes at metropolitan level. She is one of the three winners produced by an unraced half-sister to the durable (15 wins and 18 placings from 85 starts) Sequallan and fellow stakes winner Shysu who are both by Spirit Of Boom’s sire Sequalo.
Sheza Boom is bred on a 4 X 4 X 4 cross of Danehill and a 5 X 5 cross of Bletchingly.
7 Regal Hustle
Dirty Work – Vegas Queen (Casino Prince)
A $35,000 Inglis Classic graduate, she hails from the second crop of Written Tycoon’s Schillaci Stakes winning son Dirty Work.
Boasting a pedigree with strong male influence – duplications of Last Tycoon, Kenmare, Danzig and Danehill within five generations – Regal Hustle is the second of only two foals for the Echuca maiden winner Vegas Queen who died young.
Vegas Queen’s dam Queen’s Ransom by Red Ransom won at debut at Sandown at two and she has amongst her relations the 1000 Guineas winner Lady Of The Pines.
8 Billecart Blue
Blue Point – Miss Proctor (Epaulette)
By a high class sprinter who showed up at two and just kept improving, Billecart Blue was bred by Supreme Thoroughbreds and partners and purchased by Chris Waller, Mulcaster Bloodstock and Champagne Fillies for $100,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier.
Out of the unraced Miss Proctor, she is a half-sister to the three-time winner Torlaah.
Billecart Blue’s grandam Dorky was a Gr.3 placed dual city winner at two and she has been represented by eight winners including the Listed winner Quidnunc.
Billecart Blue – a descendant of the great New Zealand mare Desert Gold – boasts a 6 X 5 cross of Canadian Horse Of The Year and US Racing Hall Of Fame member Glorious Song via her high class sons Rahy and Singspiel.
9 Coolazcanbe
Cool Aza Beel – Sienna Blaze (Brazen Beau)
By a Savabeel horse who won his Gr.1 at two, Coolazcanbe was bred by Watershed Partnership and purchased for $14,000 by her trainer at the Inglis HTBA Sale.
She is the first foal for Sienna Blaze who was unplaced at her only start. Her dam Alysiana by Fastnet Rock was a city winner as was her stakes-placed half-sister Deep Sceiva.
This is quite the international family with Coolazcanbe’s closest Gr.1 relations being the Indian gallopers Multifaceted and Manifold, the English horse Mustashry, and Ventura Storm who won at elite level in Italy before taking out the Moonee Valley Gold Cup locally.
Coolazcanbe’s pedigree brings together the 3/4 brothers Nureyev, Perugino and Sadler’s Wells.
10 To Dubai We Go
Hellbent – To Dubawi We Go (Dubawi)
Raced by her breeders having been passed in at Classic, To Dubai We Go is a half-sister to the stakes placed city winner Make A Call and two other winners out of the city placed six-time winning Flying Spur mare Osprey.
Dam of the stakes placed Nisos, Osprey is out of the Gr.1 placed Palmyra Bay, dam of the Listed winner Little Pattie and ancestress of the stakes winners Fifteen Carat and McClintock.
This is a good Queensland family, one which has also produced the AJC Oaks winner Just Now and the South African based dual Gr.1 winner Happy Archer.
Her William Reid Stakes winning sire, a son of I Am Invincible, won his only start at two.
11 Where’s The Circus
Trapeze Artist – Misplaced (Fastnet Rock)
Bred by Vieira Group, she is the race’s cheapest purchase having cost connections just $1,250 from an Inglis digital sale in September last year.
By Snitzel’s four-time Gr.1 winner Trapeze Artist, a Gr.1 placed Gr.3 (the Black Opal Stakes) winner at two, she is out of the lightly raced (four placings from five starts) mare Misplaced who died in January.
Six of her seven foals to race have been winners including the stakes placed Can’t Find Snippy and the dual city winner Cavallo Rampante.
Misplaced’s placed dam Star’s Delight by Zeditave is out of the stakes placed Palace Glow, dam of the Gr.3 winners Red Colossus and Nediym’s Glow and ancestress of the stakes winners General Beau, Kinglike and Mirage.
Where’s The Circus is bred on a 4 X 3 cross of Danehill and is also line-bred to Nijinsky with that duplication supported by a strain of his 3/4 brother The Minstrel… noting that those horses are descendants of Torpenhow, also ancestress of Trapeze Artist’s grandsire Redoute’s Choice and his dam sire Domesday.