VICTORIA has lost the services of two Sunday Silence sires in recent years so the arrival of Sunday Knight is welcome news for Super VOBIS breeders.
Sunday Knight will be based at Mountmellick Stud which was also the home of ill-fated Sunday Silence sire Any Given Sunday.
Mountmellick owners Tim and Penny Reeve stood Any Given Sunday for just the one season before he died. That crop contained G1 Queensland Oaks and Derby winner Riva San.
Another Sunday Silence sire missing from local ranks this year will be Hong Kong G1 winner Hat Trick who will shuttle from Kentucky to South America in 2009.
Sunday Knight was an Arrowfield homebred and he sold for $800,000 at the 2001 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
He was trained by John Hawkes but was injured before he was ready to race. Originally retired to Plaintree Farm in Queensland, Sunday Knight’s first-crop are current four year-olds and include the multiple city winners Punch Up (ex School Blue by Geiger Counter) in Brisbane and Marunouchi (ex Flower Dancer by Serheed) in Perth.
Punch Up scored an all-the-way victory at the Gold Coast on debut as a two year-old and he added two city wins at Eagle Farm earlier this season.
Marunouchi is based in Perth and, after opening his account at Bunbury, he progressed to win another three races at Ascot building a 50% strike-rate into the bargain.
Sunday Knight is from top-flight Bletchingly mare Wrap Around. She was a G1 winner of the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley and was always in the mix at the elite level with placings in the Manikato, Lightning and Futurity Stakes.
Wrap Around’s other claim to fame as a mare comes through her winning daughter Attire (Wild Again) who foaled Fashions Afield (Redoute’s Choice), G1 winner of the AJC Sires’ Produce and Flight Stakes.
Sunday Knight is free of Northern Dancer blood so offers a complete outcross to Northern Dancer-Danzig line mares. Mountmellick is based at Tallarook and Tim and Penny Reeve can be contacted on (03) 5793 8378.
Sunday Knight will stand for a $3,000 fee (inc gst) service fee. At that price, he will appeal to those who breed to race and win.