Sargent's mortgage on Waikato Cup continues

12th Dec 2011

Little grey mare Dawn Ghost (NZ) (Pyrus) continued a remarkable run of success in the Waikato Gold Cup for her trainer, John Sargent, when she dashed to the front inside the 300m in this year's running of the feature Te Rapa staying event and held off the latecomers decisively.

Last year Dawn Ghost (NZ) was second to fellow grey Bruce Almighty (NZ) (Deputy Governor) in the Waikato Times Gold Cup (to give the Group Two its full and long-established title). Sargent won the two previous runnings with Lovetrista (Rock of Gibraltar) in 2008 and Passchendaele (NZ) (Montjeu) in 2009. So Sargent has now won three out of the last four Waikato Times Gold Cups and saddled the runner-up in the other.

Dawn Ghost (NZ)

The tall and solidly built Sargent – no ex-jockey, he – shared the excitement of Dawn Ghost's big win last Saturday from three different aspects. He bred the grey mare, in partnership with friend Craig Loach, and the two men remain as owners, 20% each, in a syndicate of eight. And, of course, for Sargent there was the deep satisfaction a trainer feels in a job well done.

Craig Loach and Sargent bought a weanling filly by Wild Rampage (Bletchingly) 18 years ago and named her Lucadore (NZ).  They won six races with her and began breeding from her when she finished racing. After she had produced a colt to Kingdom Bay (NZ) (Otehi Bay) and a filly to San Luis (Flying Spur), her owners did a foal-for-foal deal with Westbury Stud to have her mated twice with Pyrus (Mr. Prospector).  Westbury kept the first foal, a filly who has won three races as Lucrative (NZ). The next was Dawn Ghost (NZ), who has now won four and placed nine times from 29 starts.

Pyrus, a black stallion by Mr Prospector from the Nureyev mare Most Precious, did not make a great contribution during his time at Westbury and John Sargent frankly admits that he and Craig Loach chose him because he was cheap. In racing as in most areas of life, an ounce of luck is worth a ton of judgement and Dawn Ghost (NZ), the result of the second Pyrus-Lucadore mating, has now earned NZ$135,267 in stakes.

“She has been unlucky not to win more,” said Sargent. “She's so small she's always getting knocked down, like she did in the Counties Cup last time. It was a beautiful ride from Jason (Jason Waddell) to get her in the clear this time when she needed to be.”

Waddell, whose career has been dramatically rejuvenated since he mended his fences with John Sargent and rejoined the northern riding ranks, said Dawn Ghost (NZ) had been a bit reluctant to go out of the barriers at speed, so he'd deliberately let her settle and find her own rhythm. That found the little mare in the last half dozen of the big field, on the rails, when they settled.

But as pacemaker John Gray strung them out in the lead, Waddell was able to get off the fence before the end of the back straight and had Dawn Ghost (NZ) behind the leading bunch as they approached the home turn. Gaps opened when the field headed for home and Dawn Ghost (NZ) dashed through to have the race at her mercy with 250m to run. A length and a half was her margin, Sum Up (NZ) (Shinko King) also coming from near the back for second and Castle Heights (NZ) (Golan) going his best race for a long while in third.

Dawn Ghost (NZ) had not previously won beyond 1600m but the quality of some of her placings, especially when second in last year's Waikato Cup, left little doubt she could stay  2400m. By the end of this campaign we may well find out whether she can stay 3200m, as an Auckland Cup bid is a possibility. 

Dawn Ghost's dam Lucadore (NZ) is by Wild Rampage from Free Sand (NZ), whose sire, the US-bred stallion Super Gray, introduced the grey colouring to the family. Grey colour can be transmitted only by one parent or the other, directly; and, of course, a grey mare will not necessarily have a grey foal. Free Sand (NZ), remarkably, produced eight foals and the first seven of them were grey.

Lucadore (NZ) started with a dark brown foal to Kingdom Bay (himself a chestnut) but her next foals up to and including Dawn Ghost (NZ) were grey.

Waddell, whose cool ride on Dawn Ghost (NZ) played such a role in the mare's Waikato Cup win, also won one of the other black-type races on the programme, the Listed Wentwood Grange Two-Year-Old Stakes. This was on Travino (General Nediym), a racy bay Australian-bred colt by General Nediym (Nediym) from Miss Keaton, by Rubiton (Century). Travino is trained by his part-owner Peter McKay, whose record in black-type two-year-old races in recent years would be hard to match.

Experience no doubt stood to Travino, who was having his fifth start and had won his previous two. But others in the field with comparable experience did not show up and it was left to another Australian-bred, Oasis Rose (Oasis Dream-Isaure, by Daliapour) to chase him home clear of Cassie May (NZ) (Red Clubs-Losers Weepers, by Keeper).

General Nediym, now deceased, has been a notable sire of speed and has arguably out-performed his own sire, Nediym, in the stallion barn. He had another stakes winner on Saturday but it could not have been much further away from Te Rapa and still been in the same hemisphere. It was General Nediym's three-year-old daughter Night War who won the Group Three Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic at Ascot in Perth.

Travino is not eligible for the Karaka Million at the end of January, for which the connections of other youngsters who are eligible may well be relieved.

Lot 567 at the NZB Select Yearling Sale is closely related to Travino, to view please click here.

Two races later, Graham Richardson-trained mare Mydiamond Bracelet (NZ) (Al Akbar) obtained valuable black-type in taking out the Listed Ag and Turf Sprint (1400m).

A NZ$26,000 purchase from the 2008 New Zealand Bloodstock Festival Yearling Sale, Mydiamond Bracelet (NZ) is the fifteenth stakes winner for her sire, who featured later in the day as the damsire of Listed Cal Isuzu Stakes winner Lady Kipling (NZ) (Savabeel).

Lot 36 at NZB’s Premier Yearling Sale is a half-sister to Lady Kipling (NZ) by High Chaparral, to view please click here.

The final black-type race at Te Rapa, the Cal Isuzu Stakes for fillies and mares, was won in authoritative style by the four-year-old mare Lady Kipling (NZ). One of three winners on the day for Matt Cameron, Lady Kipling (NZ) strode to the front halfway up the stretch and held off the favourite, Shez Sinsational (NZ) (Ekraar) by a comfortable length.

Though Lady Kipling (NZ) has been a consistent performer and had won three of her previous five starts, she was, on the face of it, making a fair step up in class in this Group Two weight-for-age event. Even trainer Murray Baker admitted to being pleasantly surprised, saying he'd thought Lady Kipling (NZ) was more of a handicap mare.

“But she has certainly improved this year, running up in the van instead of getting back, and finishing her races off, too. She's looking as if she might run 2000m now. She's out of a short-course mare (true enough; her dam, Akela, by Al Akbar, won four races at 1200m and two at 1400m) but she's by Savabeel, and the Savabeels have been winning everywhere and anything.”

Savabeel (Zabeel) in fact claimed the winner of the next race, as well: the promising four-year-old gelding Savour The Moment (ex Dancing Mistress, by Masterclass) who notched his fourth win from 10 starts in the R85 1600m.

Savabeel will be represented by 25 Premier, 26 Select and 3 Festival lots at the NZB National Yearling Sales Series beginning January 30.