Keep The Faith showcased his stud potential when Dinkum Diamond and Lucky Penny grabbed a Group double at Morphettville on Saturday.
Dinkum Diamond (2f Keep The Faith – Raja Lane by Devaraja) scored a last-to-first G3 victory in The Jansz (1200m) for leading owner Harry Perks. She had put the writing on the wall at her previous start when runner-up to Dashitude in the LR Dequetteville Stakes.
Lucky Penny (3f Keep The Faith – White Hart Lane by Flying Spur) kept her unbeaten record intact with a front-running result in the LR Laelia Stakes (1600m) at Morphettville. Connections are considering a G1 assignment for her in the Queensland Oaks in June.
The feature double comes less than a week after Greta West studmaster Laurie McCarthy announced Keep The Faith will stand for a $4,400 (inc gst) service fee in 2012.
Dinkum Diamond jumped the gun and didn’t settle in the Dequetteville Stakes. “She raced wide without cover last time,” jockey Claire Lindop said after The Jansz. “The plan was to wait and let her go in the straight. I thought I may have left it too late but we got just there. She’s a lovely little girl.”
Her dam Raja Lane had been a stakes winner at Cheltenham and Caulfield and Perks bought her for $60,000 at the 2009 Inglis Great Southern Sale when she was carrying Dinkum Diamond.
Lucky Penny had won on debut by 8 lengths at Wodonga before another dominant display at Caulfield in April. She completed a hat-trick for Melbourne based owner-breeder Rick Smith in the Laelia Stakes. Her dam White Hart Lane won four races for Smith and was also stakes placed at Flemington and Morphettville.
Keep The Faith (Sunday Silence) has sired 75 individual winners in his first two crops at a 63% strike-rate. He stands alongside King Of Prussia (Anabaa) at Victorian based Greta West Stud.