Widden Stud’s colours won’t be carried in the Rosehill race that bears its name this weekend, but that does not mean the famed operation is not represented in the $250,000 Group 3 event.
Widden stallion Written By is the sire of leading fancy The Playwright and the Hunter Valley stud was the birthplace of another runner.
Mac Daddy Flex is out of the Japanese mare Beluga, who is owned by Robert Anderson and resides at the iconic property.
The daughter of Capitalist was one of many born at Widden in the spring of 2022 and while far from the most expensive, bought by Will Johnson and Annabel Neasham for $250,000 out of Inglis Premier, she was one that Widden principal Antony Thompson recalls clearly.
“She was a stunning yearling, a near-black filly and quite striking,” Thompson recalled.
“She was just a very classy sort of filly with a big Japanese pedigree.
“She’s a filly a good client of ours, Robert Anderson, bred and we sold at the Melbourne Premier Sale last year, so it’s nice to see her lining up in the Widden Stakes.”
Mac Daddy Flex is the result of a bold plan by Anderson to tap into the Japanese market, which saw him pay ¥45,000,000 – a tick over AU$500,000 at the time – for Beluga at the JRHA Select Sale in 2016.
The daughter of Kinshasa No Kiseki and the Kris S mare Admire Light carried Anderson’s purple and yellow colours in Japan, where injury curtailed her career after just eight starts, but not before she won a Group 3 race over 1400 metres as a two-year-old.
It added valuable Black Type to a pedigree page that features stars from both Japan and Europe.
Admire Light is a half-sister to Group 1-winning Japanese sprinter Sleepless Night, while their granddam Katies won an Irish 1000 Guineas at Group 1 level and was Champion 3YO Filly in England in 1984.
Katies is the dam of Katies First, who is the granddam of not only Japan Cup winner and Japanese Horse Of The Year Admire Moon but also Tenno Sho and Arima Kinen winner Efforia.
“Beluga was a really exciting two-year-old in Japan, she was a Stakes winner over there in a Group 3 race and was an early favourite for a Group 1 race but hurt her hock so we didn’t see the best of her,” Thompson said.
“But she does have good depth of pedigree. Obviously, Capitalist is an out-and-out two-year-old from a two-year-old family with a Golden Slipper pedigree.
“But there’ s a little bit more depth of pedigree on Beluga’s side that goes back to a Horse of the Year and there’s a couple of champions in that pedigree.
“There was plenty there to say she should get up and going at two and hopefully be able to train on.”
Mac Daddy Flex’s preparations for the 1100m Widden Stakes have included two officials, a third placing back in spring before a fourth placing in an 800m Hawkesbury workout on January 20 when beaten three lengths by Burma Star.
The Neasham and Rob Archibald-trained Mac Daddy Flex will become the second to race from Beluga when she steps out in the Widden Stakes, less than 24 hours after her older half-brother McAdam runs in the third race at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
That three-year-old son of Snitzel, a $350,000 Inglis Easter yearling, is trained by Danny O’Brien, who also prepares the unraced Lord Kanaloa now-four-year-old mare named Kala that Beluga was carrying when exported to Australia.
Beluga, who turns 10 on February 11, did not have a foal the year after she delivered Mac Daddy Flex, but had a colt by Zoustar in August last year and is now in-foal to Tassort.
Mac Daddy Flex is a $14 chance in the Widden Stakes with Chad Schofield to ride from barrier two and Thompson would love to see her add to the family’s history of Black Type in the race that was last year won by subsequent Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot.
“It’s been, traditionally, a really nice race and a lot of lot really good fillies have won it,” Thompson said of the Widden Stakes, which was first run in 1943.
“It’s a race that’s looked good on the pedigree page as well, some of the fillies that have won the Widden have gone on and been great producers as well, and it’s an important race for breeders to try and get that valuable Group 3 performance as a two-year-old.”
Overreach and Mossfun are other Golden Slippers to have won the Widden Stakes since it settled as a fillies’ race in 2008, with Away Game and Learning To Fly among the other recent winners.
