Lope de Vega treble a solace for deflated billionaire
At one stage, Tinkler under the umbrella of Patinack Farm stood sires
Lope de Vega treble a solace for deflated billionaire
NATHAN TINKLER, the onetime Muswellbrook, Hunter Valley school boy and coal miner who rose up to be Australia’s youngest billionaire and cut a swathe through Australian breeding and racing, may have received some solace for current financial woes when the former visiting sire Lope de Vega (GB) supplied three winners at the weekend, March 5-6.
At one stage, Tinkler under the umbrella of Patinack Farm stood sires at his studs in the Hunter Valley (Segenhoe Valley and then Sandy Hollow) and in Queensland (Benobble, on the mountain plateau between the Gold Coast and Beaudesert).
In his wisdom, he only used one sire on the dual hemisphere system and that was Lope de Vega (named after a Spanish playwright), a well patronised visitor to the Sandy Hollow stud 2011, 12, 13 and 14, leaving over 300 foals.
Inbred 3x3 to Machiavellian (a Mr. Prospector close relation of Danehill), the Ireland produced Lope de Vega has five sires in his immediate pedigree who shuttled to Australia.They are Shamardal and Giant’s Causeway paternally and in the bottom half his dam’s sire Vettori and her mother’s sire Kendor and his sire Kenmare. Kenmare stood his last few years as a resident at Arrowfield, Scone.
A powerfully put together showy chestnut, much like his grandsire Giant’s Causeway, the 2007 Ireland foaled Lope de Vega did all his racing in France, contesting nine races (1400m-2100m) on top tracks for two wins at two and two more at three. Named a France champion in the latter year, he emulated his sire and won both their Guineas and Derby.
A resident at the Ballylinch Stud in Ireland, Lope de Vega is now one of Europe’s best young sires after two years of representation. He kicked off in 2014 with 25 2-year-old winners of 34 races, four stakes winners including European champion 2-year-old Belardo, a representation that gave him the leading first season sire title and placed him fourth on the Juvenile scoreboard by earnings. his sire (23 winners,1 SW) was third.
When 2015 concluded, the two Lope de Vega European crops had supplied 126 starters, 75 winners, 27 placed, 121 wins and earnings of $5.1million. He has had 12 stakes winners and 10 others stakes placed.
Lope de Vega has also made an impact with his first two Australian crops, oldest now three. Latest Bloodhound Statistics give him 23 Australian sired winners (20 in Australia, 2 Singapore and 1 Hong Kong).
All bred by Patinack Farm, his three winners at the weekend were David Payne 2-year-olds French Fern (filly, won the Group 2 Reisling Stakes at Randwick) and Ocean City (gelding, routed his two opponents in winning by four lengths at Gosford) and 3-year-old gelded Richcity Fortune in Hong Kong.
Ocean City (a $14,000 Gold Coast January yearling) and Richcity Fortune (a $95,000 Gold Coast National weanling) are brothers produced by Dancescape, a Danehill Dancer mare who like her brother Shrewd Rhythm was a good class Melbourne 2-year-old.
Bought by David Payne for $20,000 at a Patinack dispersal at the Gold Coast in January, two times Sydney winner in three starts French Fern is from La Famelia, a listed winner at two by Strategic.The second dam, Blondine, is a Danehill Melbourne winner from a three-quarter sister to the great sprinter Schillaci.
Record third successive NZ Derby winner for an Australian
WHEN the A.W. Pike trained gelding Rangipo succeeded in the $750,000 Group 1 New Zealand Derby in a tight three-way finish at Ellerslie on Saturday March 5, he became third successive winner of the race sired and foaled in Australia. He was preceded in 2015 by Mongolian Khan, a son of Coolmore shuttled Roman Emperor bred in Tasmania, and in 2014 by Puccini, a product of Coolmore’s champion Australian sire Encosta de Lago foaled in Victoria.
The latest New Zealand Derby winner, Rangipo, is from the first crop of one of the Victoria’s emerging good sires, the Fastnet Rock BTC Classic (1350m) and STC Heritage Stakes winner and STC Golden Rose, AJC Galaxy and Challenge Stakes third Stryker. He is a resident at the Three Bridges Stud at Eddington.
Stryker is from Laetitia, a Woodman (Mr. Prospector) Sydney winner whose dam, Planet Hollywood (by Golden Slipper winner Star Watch), is a three-quarter sister to the grandam of Thorn Park, the sire from use in New Zealand of 2011 New Zealand Derby winner Jimmy Choux. It is a branch of the Denise’s Joy family.
Stryker has got off to a promising start as a sire with over twenty first crop winners to his credit. Besides Rangipo, they include Strykum (won SAJC Queen Adelaide Stakes, MVRC Quest Moonee Valley Plate), She Is Stryking (NZ winner, Group 2 third) and Labdien (won Melbourne), Andrioli (Melbourne) and Sonesta (Perth).
He is currently, following the debut win at Kembla Grange on March 7 of the L.W. Curtis trained Let’s Dream Big, a $3,750 Melbourne weanling, Victoria’s leading juvenile sire by winners.
The best of his runners so far has been Rangipo, winner of seven of 12 outings in New Zealand, including the Derby and three Group 2s, the Avondale Guineas, Great Northern Guineas and Waikato Guineas. He could be their best 3-year-old of 2015-16.
Bred and raced by John and Margaret Thompson and like 42 other Group1 winners, including Winx, raised on Coolmore in the Hunter Valley until sent to New Zealand as a December yearling, the Tony Pike (Cambridge) trained Rangipo is the first runner for Holloway Castle, a Zabeel mare who won one minor race in NZ (1400m) and earned $6,826.
He is the first Group1 winner in six generations, but Holloway Castle is a half-sister to Maze (Housebuster filly; 4 wins, Awapuni Gold Cup-G2, second QTC P.J. O’Shea Stakes-G2, fourth NZ Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes-G1; sold Melbourne mare sale 2013 for $1,800), Barlinnie (St Petersburg gelding; 9 wins, BTC Doomben Stakes-LR, Sunshine Coast Summer Cup-LR, second VRC Blamey Stakes-G2) and Penitentiary (Pentire gelding; 8 wins, Geelong Classic-LR, third two Group1s NZ).
Rangipo’s grandam, Strangeways (three wins to 2000m, $10,228 in NZ), is by Veloso, a Zamazaan winner of the Sydney Cup and Spring Champion Stake, runner up in the Champagne Stakes, AJC Derby, H.E. Tancred Stakes, Caulfield Guineas and Canterbury Guineas and third in the Victoria Derby, Caulfield Cup (at three) and Rosehill Guineas.
The next dam, Irish Ballad, was unsuccessful at her only start and by Pedlar, a New Zealand bred sire who won six of 24 starts but only earned $8,300.
