Impressive debut for Sir Fergus at Ellerslie

In less than 24 hours, Ardrossan unearthed another promising prospect as Sir Fergus produced an impressive first-up performance over 1200m at Ellerslie.

The three-year-old, trained by Barbara Kennedy and ridden by Warren Kennedy, jumped from barrier eight of the 13-horse field. Coming into the straight, Kennedy and Sir Fergus balanced and made their move, chasing down the leader to hold off the four-year-olds Delz Abeel and Mr Marigold.

Raced by Daniel Nakhle and Ger Beemsterboer, and bred by Hamish and Karen McQuade, Sir Fergus is the second foal of Underthemoonlight, who has a Noverre weanling filly and is due to foal to Noverre again this season.

“He’s had to do it the hard way and prove himself. He’s consistently producing good winners off his smaller books. To achieve 9% stakes winners to runners from very low numbers and average pedigrees is quite incredible. He’s certainly an upgrading sire, and people have to understand, and be reminded, that his numbers don’t increase until the foals of the 2024 crop,” said studmaster Mark Chittick.

“I’m adamant that as these numbers and quality do rise, he will be a formidable sire. He’s a very safe stallion who can leave good types that become very good racehorses out of any type of mare.”

Ardrossan will stand at an unchanged fee of $20,000 plus GST.