King rules at Kembla
The addition of headgear at Kembla Grange on Saturday afternoon paved the way for King Of Thunder to crown the fast start he has made to his career.
The John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-prepared three-year-old had placed in both of his previous appearances and he made no mistake this time, thumping his rivals over 1600 metres.
Rider Andrew Adkins took any bad luck out of the equation by making the running aboard the hot favourite and they cruised clear in the straight for an effortless five and a-half length
victory.
“His first two runs were really good and the blinkers helped to sharpen him up,” Charlton
said.
“We like him and think he’s a horse that will get over further later on.”
Bred by Pippa Chittick, the son of former resident sire Tivaci, King Of Thunder was sold by Waikato Stud through Ohukia Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft to O’Shea for $50,000.
He is out of the stakes-placed Zabeel mare Sheezababe, who produced a sister to King Of Tunder last season and is due to foal to Ardrossan.
She has now left four winners, including the G1 Vinery Stud Stakes placegetter Impecunious, and is a daughter of the G1 Sydney Cup winner Honour Babe.
Ardrossan’s Group 1-placed darling wins A$300,000 Gr.2 HKJC World Pool Wakeful Stakes
Second and fourth in 1600m Group 1 races in her two previous starts since being purchased privately by OTI Racing and stepping out in Australia under Chris Waller’s racing banner, De Armas (Ardrossan) stepped up in distance at Flemington on Saturday and opened her Australian account in style in the A$300,000 Gr.2 HKJC World Pool Wakeful Stakes (2000m) on Derby Day.
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The Corner with Garry Chittick
The writing of my Corner started many years ago, motivated by an irritation that I felt needed scratching. It was never my intention to make my commentary regular; neither did I intend to reinvent the direction of racing administration. It is both disappointing and ironical that what should be a simple, straightforward business provides a regular need for comment.
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