Pedigree Picks with Mike Rennie – 24 May, 2019

Wednesday saw a couple of nice Australian winners for Savabeel and Ocean Park. The Kris Lees-trained and China Horse Club owned Grand Bouquet (ex Daffodil by No Excuse Needed) was impressive over 1800m at the Gold Coast.

She holds a nomination for the Queensland Oaks. Let’s hope she can make the field and measure up to her Mum’s ability. Trained by Kevin Gray, Daffodil won three Gr.1 races, most notably the AJC Australian Oaks. It’s a family the stud knows well with the full sister in our racing team and multiple relations in the broodmare band. The Savabeel/No Excuse Needed nick is consistent, producing five winners from eight runners, while perhaps the ex-factor here is coming from the grand-dam sire O’Reilly. A potent combination with Savabeel as we know producing 12% stakes winners to runners.

As Savabeel rises to the twilight of his career we now see more of his daughters at stud. We expect his affinity with O’Reilly to continue in the reverse nick. Already it has produced the stakes winner Rellson and stakes performers Just Fabulous and Sagunto. O’Reilly can also be seen close up in the pedigrees of the stake’s performers Hanger, Pipana and Berkshire Lady. Sacred Falls (O’Reilly ex Iguazu’s Girl by Redoute’s Choice) seems an obvious choice for daughters of Savabeel given the above and the power of the Danehill/Zabeel combination.

There doesn’t ever seem a time when Wentwood Grange don’t have a nice horse running around. The latest being a hearty and progressive daughter of Ocean Park called Savigne (ex Hy Fuji by Fuji Kiseki). Trained by Chris Waller, she was authoritive in her victory at Canterbury and it’s hard to see her not being competitive in the Queensland Oaks should she get a start. The punters seem to agree with her price slashed from over $100 to $12-$15. Looking at her pedigree, interestingly she is a relative outcross until we get to the fifth generation where Northern Dancer is cross duplicated via his sons Nureyev and Be My Guest. Perhaps the power comes from the sex balanced triple of Feola?  Or perhaps Hy Fuji is just a top producer? Either way, Ocean Park continues to build momentum and it seems simply a matter of time before the flood gates open. I look forward to watching Savigne and Kolding in the Queensland carnival and just as much, Fabric this weekend at Flemington.