There is a mare in NSW called Pinocchio – and this is no lie – but this mare is starting to look like a bona fide blue hen.
Blue hen mares are rare.
They are the ones that just keep producing superstars each foal, and so far this mare, who is by Encosta De Lago has had three babies to race and they can all run like the wind.
She first gave us the speedy multiple city winner Puppet Master (by Foxwedge) who has won 4 times for $141,700.
Her next baby has grown up to be the emerging Aussie sprinting sensation called Classique Legend (by Not A Single Doubt) who after winning 3 from 4 starts and $771,900 is being aimed at the $14million The Everest. His last start win, at Gr 2 level before spelling, forced him into the boom horse category.
And so that brings us to her third baby, a 2YO who last night in Hong Kong, made such an impression the entire racing community over there is considering him a future superstar too.
His name is AETHERO (Sebring-Pinocchio) and he has now had 3 starts for 3 super, super impressive wins.
None more so than last night.
“Machine is an understatement when describing this horse,” said George Moore, son of Hong Kong’s great trainer John Moore and the one who found him as a yearling.
Zac Purton rode the horse from his outside draw to cross the field in super fast time and then just keep going, totally defying the logic of fatigue and lactic build up, easing up on the line, under a hand ride ensuring great commotion.
The 2YO was so impressive it prompted the HKJC to tweet, “he is the next big thing.”
The Moore camp will put him away now and produce him for the big Gr 1 International Sprint at the end of the year.
That will be a few weeks after The Everest where his big brother, Classique Legend, looms as one of the hardest to beat.
Aethero cost $510,000 as a yearling as was sold by Tyreel Stud, which is based in NSW.
His mother, Pinocchio, is a grey mare and a half-sister to former superstar and multiple Gr 1 winner Racing To Win.
The Gr 3 winner Purrealist is also in the immediate family.
Should Classique Legend win The 2019 Everest he may well head to Hong Kong for the Gr 1 International Sprint in December.
Which, coincidentally, is the race Aethero will aim at when he comes back into work.
