Durham Lodge sire Blackfriars boosted his international winner tally on Wednesday night when Prosperous scored an impressive victory in the Queen’s Road East Hcp at Happy Valley.
Prosperous (4g Blackfriars – It’s Not True by Is It True) won against a leader biased track and clocked a slick 57.23s for 1000 metres. He was slowly away but came home with a brilliant burst under Howard Cheng to score by three-quarters of a length.
Prosperous is raced by the Top Maestro Syndicate and was a $52,500 buy from the Blackwatch Stud draft at the 2007 Perth Magic Millions.
Blackwatch studmaster Steve Wallace welcomed a half-brother Prosperous last October. The colt is by Redoute’s Choice sire Passenger who has covered 158 mares in his first two seasons at Wallace’s Coolup stud.
Prosperous is the fourth Hong Kong winner for Blackfriars whose world-wide total is now 106 at a 58% strike-rate. The quality is also evident with 20 of those winners earning black-type.
Simply Adorable (5m Blackfriars – Fortunate Sally by Salieri) joined his stakes winning tally when she lobbed in the Listed Pinjarra Cup last Sunday. The Vaughan Sigley trained mare started at $23 and benefited from a masterly ride from veteran hoop Danny Miller.
“She’s always been pretty consistent,” Sigley said after his mare won the $100,000 race. “We thought we were up against it with horses like Almohad engaged but Danny rode her a treat.”
Simply Adorable is a direct descendant of Born Rich (Beau Sovereign) which is arguably the most successful WA family in the Stud Book. Owner Alan MacAlister bought her for $50,000 from the Durham Lodge draft at the 2006 Perth Magic Millions. Her yearling sister failed to make a $35,000 reserve at the Perth Magic Millions last month.
Sigley will set Simply Adorable for the second leg of the south-west cups double in the Listed Bunbury Cup (2200m) next Thursday, March 11.
Another Blackfriars galloper getting ready for the autumn carnival is Neville Parnham’s star colt God has Spoken. He resumed from a spell with an encouraging effort in the Listed Challenge Stakes at Ascot last month and has been entered for the South West Breeders Patron’s Plate at Bunbury next Tuesday, March 9.
God Has Spoken (3c Blackfriars-Dolly Will Do by Rubiton) has looked a classic type since winning the G3 WA Sires Produce Stakes in April 2009. He returned to add the Listed Aquanita Stakes in November and then split seasoned campaigners Sniper’s Bullet and Scenic Shot in the G1 Kingston Town Classic at Ascot.
He was a $41,000 buy from Durham Lodge at the 2008 Perth Magic Millions and has already banked over $420,000 for the Cockatoo Ridge Syndicate.
Blackfriars is a son of Danehill and was a G1 winner of the 1999 Victoria Derby for David Hayes and the Sangster family before retiring to Durham Lodge. “Blackfriars is doing a tremendous job,” Durham Lodge’s Jeremy Smith said. “He is developing into one of the more commercial stallions in WA.”