Double delight for WS young stallions

The young guns on Waikato Stud’s stallion roster combined for a memorable trans-Tasman two-year-old double on Saturday afternoon.

Super Seth’s son Feroce had been a winner at Pakenham at the first time of asking and maintained his unbeaten record with victory over 1200 metres at Caulfield while Ardrossan youngster Yaldi made a perfect debut at Pukekohe Park.

Trained by Dominic Sutton, Feroce was made to work hard to cross from the outside gate and sit in second spot and then stayed on strongly for rider Billy Egan after striking the front 300 metres from home.

“It took a bit longer than I expected to get across and I loved the way he dropped his head and settled before he picked up nicely,” Sutton said.

“It was a very good effort from quite a raw horse and there’s a lot of improvement still to come.”

Bred by Pencarrow Stud, Feroce was purchased out of Kilgravin Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft for $160,000 by Sutton and McKeever Bloodstock.

The juvenile is a son of the unraced O’Reilly mare Corinthia and is a half-brother to the Listed Karaka Classic winner Siracusa and a member of the famed Eight Carat family.

On the home front, the race day covers came off Yaldi at Pukekohe and he couldn’t have been more impressive.

Sent out a short-priced favourite off the back of three trial successes, the Andrew Forsman-trained two-year-old jumped to the front off the inside gate and was cruising at the top of the straight.

When rider Kozzi Asano asked him to lengthen stride, the response was immediate and they forged clear for a soft debut victory by a length and three-quarters in the colours of Lib Petagna’s JML Bloodstock.

A multiple trial winner, Yaldi was bred by Brown Thoroughbreds and was a $50,000 purchase for bloodstock agent Bruce Perry out of Little Avondale Stud’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale.