Taken goes back-to-back for Price-Kent Jnr

Following a short four-week freshen-up, Ardrossan‘s three-year-old son Taken added a second victory to his resume when winning over 1,600m at Sandown on Saturday, 24 May for Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr.

The three-year-old jumped from barrier 11 under Jamie Melham, with the pair putting in a patient effort there furlongs and landing in front one-off the fence. With 300m to go, Melham asked Taken for effort, and he duly responded, being challenged by Detroit City but holding him off easy.

Taken races in the colours of prominent Australian-based owners Carl and Lorraine Holt and was bred by the Dewar Partnership.

With stakes horses in all three crops, despite covering smaller, lesser-quality books – Ardrossan has already proven his ability to upgrade his mares and produce winners. With bigger and better-quality books in the pipeline, this season’s matings are set to benefit from both strength in numbers and quality coming through. 

His rising two-year-olds come from Ardrossan’s biggest book to date and made up to A$150,000 at Magic Millions – bought by Danny O’Brien Racing, and at Karaka it was Bjorn Baker Racing / Clarke Bloodstock (FBAA) who bought his top lot for $150,000. His yearlings averaged over five times their service fee ($116,363) with international demand for his stock to the fore – six of 11 Karaka yearlings were bought by Australia or Hong Kong.

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