The Gr.3 Golden Gift is a feature event on Saturday’s Rosehill card, a $1 million race for the two-year-olds. A mixture of the quite cheap, the expensive and the very expensive provide for an interesting pre-Christmas juvenile contest.
REVENGEANCE
Breeding: Hellbent – Havasu (Sacred Falls)
A $100,000 graduate of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, he is by I Am Invincible’s Gr.1 William Reid Stakes-winning son whose eight stakes winners include the Gr.1 horses Magic Time and Benedetta. Already stakes placed, he is the first foal for an unraced daughter of the dual Listed-winning New Zealander Halobelle whose daughter Miss Federer won at Gr.3 level at two. This is quite the international family with stakes winners in Belgium, Venezuela, America and Germany.
DEFENSEMEN
Breeding: Wootton Bassett – Upfront (War Front)
From the second local crop of his recently deceased sire (who has 19 Gr.1 winners amongst his 72 stakes winners), this $1.4 million Inglis Easter purchase was in the thick of things at debut. He is a half-brother to three winners including Direct who was stakes placed (third behind Home Affairs in the Gr.2 Silver Slipper Stakes) at two. His imported placed dam is out of the Gr.1-placed dual Group winner Up, dam of the Gr.2 winner Aspray and half-sister to the dual Gr.1-winning successful stallion Dutch Art. Ancestress of this family is the famed matriarch Simon’s Shoes and Defensemen is bred on a 5×6 cross (via Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells) of her descendant Special. Also of note is his 7×7 cross of Canadian Oaks heroine Flaming Page via her grandson The Minstrel and son Nijinsky.
ANTHROPOID
Breeding: Prague – All Too Free (All Too Hard)
A $180,000 graduate of the 2025 Magic Millions, he hails from the second crop of the Redoute’s Choice horse Prague (represented by two winners amongst his first 21 runners) whose two Gr.3 victories came at the age of two. Anthropoid, who ran well off a wide run at debut, is a half-brother to two winners out of a city-winning half-sister to Redoute’s Choice’s Gr.3-winning daughter Ravi (in turn dam of the Gr.3-winning juvenile Inkaruna) and his Listed-winning son Elzaam. Anthropoid’s sire is bred on a Danehill/Snippets/Last Tycoon cross whilst his dam sire All Too Hard is Danehill/Last Tycoon/Snippets; the sort of intense male line-breeding that can produce a fast early maturer.
PREDATION
Breeding: Capitalist – Ygritte (Snitzel)
By a Golden Slipper Stakes winner who has two Gr.1 winners amongst his 27 stakes winners, Predation is another with close-up male duplication; his sire bred on a Last Tycoon/Danehill cross and his dam the opposite. And his dam is by Snitzel whose sire Redoute’s Choice hails from the same prolific Best In Show family as Last Tycoon’s sire Try My Best. There are four stakes winners amid 33 winners bred on this Capitalist/Snitzel cross. Predation, purchased at the Inglis Classic for $110,000, is out of the Gosford Guineas winner Ygritte, half-sister to Snitzel’s WA 1000 Guineas winner My Sister Lil. Ygritte’s grandam is the New Zealand Horse Of The Year Tycoon Lil.
ARTEMEX
Breeding: Exceed And Excel – Artemis Rose (Lonhro)
One of two runners from the penultimate crop of 45 foals for his Champion Sire (Mystical the other), this $120,000 Magic Millions purchase is out of a mare by Lonhro—noting that Exceed And Excel has sired (from 63 runners) 47 winners out of his daughters with eight of those being stakes winners. Artemex is out of a city-placed daughter of the Listed winner True Blonde whose dam is the influential Easy Date. The dam of four stakes winners including the high-class sprinter and stallion Snippets, she is ancestress of another 30 stakes winners including the Golden Slipper winner Forensics and fellow Gr.1 winners Rewaaya, King’s Legacy, Sense Of Occasion, Ertijaal and Oohood.
PLAGIARISM
Breeding: Written By – Profiterole (Snitzel)
A $120,000 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling by a Blue Diamond Stakes-winning son of Champion Sire Written Tycoon, Plagiarism is the first named foal for the lightly raced Gold Coast winner Profiterole whose Maribyrnong Plate-winning dam Real Stolle produced the dual Listed-winning two-year-old Nomothaj. This is a versatile family which has also been represented by the VRC Derby winner Warning and the Galaxy winner Mariamia. Plagiarism’s pedigree brings together Try My Best, Umatilla and Redoute’s Choice, all descendants of Best In Show with the latter two being uncle and nephew. Four of Written By’s first stakes winners are out of Redoute’s Choice-line mares, three of those having Snitzel as their dam sire.
RAPID PROGRESS
Breeding: Yes Yes Yes – Shrug (Written Tycoon)
A descendant of the high-class racemare and wonderful matriarch Denise’s Joy, Rapid Progress is this race’s cheapest purchase, secured for $12,500 at the Magic Millions. His Everest-winning sire has one stakes winner and six stakes placegetters in his first two crops. Yes Yes Yes is a son of Rubick who hails from the same Best In Show family as Written Tycoon’s great-grandsire Try My Best. Rapid Progress is the first foal for the four-time winner Shrug whose dam is a half-sister to the New Zealand St Leger winner Sergeant Blast and to the dam of the Wellington Guineas winner The Justice League. Also from this branch of the family are the Gr.1 winners Sterling City and Kementari. In addition to his Best In Show cross, Rapid Progress is also line-bred to the outstanding mares Special (via Fairy King and Nureyev) and Lalun (Bold Reason and Never Bend).
THE NEXT EPISODE
Breeding: Snitzel – Humma Humma (Denman)
The race’s most expensive purchase, connections laying down $2.8 million for him at the Magic Millions, this son of Champion Sire Snitzel (162 stakes winners and counting) is a half-brother to the Blue Diamond Preview runner-up (to My Gladiola) Price Tag out of a speed mare who has a Gr.3 and two Listed wins amongst her six successes. A $1 million broodmare purchase, she is a half-sister to the Listed winner Tycoon Humma out of the city-winning Bel Esprit mare Humma Mumma, half-sister to Listed winner Vignette. Another one line-bred to Best In Show (Redoute’s Choice/Last Tycoon), he hails from the same Derna family as the great stallion Zabeel.
THREESOME
Breeding: Wild Ruler – Triple Chelsea (Hat Trick)
A member of the first crop of his Moir Stakes-winning sire, a son of Redoute’s Choice, he was taken to the Inglis Classic where he fetched $50,000. His dam’s first two locally named foals are both recent winners of their latest starts. That mare—Triple Chelsea—is an imported five-time Listed winner whose dam Oceane Music and grandam Si Symphonie are also Listed winners. There have been 177 winners bred on this Snitzel/Sunday Silence (sire of the Hong Kong International Mile winner Hat Trick) cross with 11 of those being stakes winners. Snitzel’s grandsire Danehill (and his grandsire Northern Dancer) hails from the same Natalma/Almahmoud family as Halo to whom Triple Chelsea is line-bred—and her dam sire Ocean Of Wisdom is another relation.
PERSIAN WONDER
Breeding: Hello Youmzain – Steer By The Stars (Pivotal)
By a dual Gr.1-winning stallion (sire of seven stakes winners) whose sire Kodiac is a Danehill half-brother to Invincible Spirit, the Cambridge Stud-bred Persian Wonder was purchased for $160,000 at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale. A 3/4 brother to the UK-based Listed winner Never Back Down, he is out of a half-sister to the stakes winners Consort and Her World. His stakes-winning third dam Wild Planet produced the dual Group winner Surya, in turn dam of the Gr.1 mare Aruna. Hello Youmzain’s second dam sire Sadler’s Wells is a 3/4 brother to Nureyev to whom Steer By The Stars is line-bred 3×3, providing for duplications of the famed mare Special.
THRILL HUNTER
Breeding: Ole Kirk – Seeking Attention (Exceed And Excel)
By a hot young stallion—a dual Gr.1-winning Written Tycoon horse already represented by five stakes winners including the recent 1000 Guineas winner Ole Dancer—Thrill Hunter went through the Inglis Easter ring where it took $280,000 to secure her. A second member (Rapid Progress the other) of the Denise’s Joy family to contest this race, she is out of the stakes-placed multiple city winner Seeking Attention who has done a great job with ten winners—including this filly—amongst her 11 foals. The South African stakes winner Buckinghampshire is amongst that tally as is the stakes-placed Cautious whose stakes-placed son Doctor Zous won ten races.
SPICY MISS
Breeding: Trapeze Artist – Sweet Gisel (Street Boss)
A $150,000 Magic Millions yearling, she is by Snitzel’s most prolific Gr.1 son Trapeze Artist, the four-time elite-level winner who has the Caulfield Guineas winner Griff amongst his seven stakes winners. Spicy Miss is the second foal for the imported Sweet Gisel, a placed half-sister to the Listed winner Mr. Pee Vee and to the dam of the stakes winners Marz Express and Harlan’s Destiny.
JAIPUR MAISON
Breeding: Zousain – Miss Amelia (More Than Ready)
A home-bred for successful owner and breeder Richard Pegum, Jaipur Maison did head to the Magic Millions where she was passed in with a reserve of $275,000. Her Gr.2-winning sire by the Champion Sire Zoustar has three stakes winners amongst his first 76 winners. One of those is last year’s Red Roses Stakes winner Amelita, this filly’s full sister. Their three-time (from six starts) winning dam Miss Amelia is a daughter of the speedy Silver Slipper Stakes winner Amelia’s Dream whose dam Shalt Not was also a stakes winner at two. Jaipur Maison is bred on a 4×3 cross of Redoute’s Choice.
MYSTICAL
Breeding: Exceed And Excel – Rainbow Falls (Dubawi)
Bred along very similar lines to her rival Artemex, she is by the same stallion as that horse from the same family… her fourth dam True Blonde being Artemex’s grandam. This is the prolific Easy Date family that has so many talented gallopers in its membership with a recent one being the tiny but tough Arabian Summer. A granddaughter of Colour who won at Gr.3 level at two, Mystical certainly caught the eye at the Magic Millions where $425,000 was paid for her. Her sire and dam sire have combined we
