The Group 1 Levin Classic celebrations reverberated all the way from New Zealand to Perth on Friday.
We Can Say It Now (3f Starcraft – We Can’t Say That by Generous) won the Classic for leading owner-breeder Paul Makin and she will be gunning for another Group 1 in the Captain Cook Stakes at Trentham next Saturday.
Makin still owns a controlling share in Arrowfield based sire Starcraft but he sold We Can’t Say That for $110,000 at the 2008 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale.
Gervase Park owner Chris Gales purchased We Can’t Say That for a long-standing client Western Australian client. The mare was carrying another Starcraft filly and she made $36,000 when sold at this year’s Perth Magic Millions yearling sale.
She has been named Wecansay Mak and is being prepared by Ascot trainer Wally Mitchell for his major client Santoso Wirya.
Mitchell and Wirya topped the 2008 Perth Magic Millions when they paid $280,000 for a Fastnet Rock colt out of the Gervase Park draft. Racing as Dino Mak, he won the G3 Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic at Ascot this time last year.
“I told Wally he should stick to just buying our yearlings,” Gales said on Saturday. “He’s very happy with Wecansay Mak and has tipped her out for a break. Being out of a Generous mare, she’s a big, gangly filly and will take time.”
We Can’t Say That’s latest foal is a cracking colt by Vital Equine. The sire is an Irish bred son of Danetime standing at Touchtone Farm.
Second dam Courtalista (Pompeii Court) was a G2 winner at Auckland and Trentham and she was also beaten less than a length when runner-up to champion filly Research in the 1989 G1 AJC Oaks.
The Levin Classic is inbred 3 x 3 to the New Zealand sire Pompeii Court through Courtalista and Starcraft’s dam Flying Floozie.
Gales has catalogued 25 yearlings under the Gervase Park banner and as agent for the 2011 Perth Magic Millions. Local sires Flying Pegasus (6), Oratorio (4) and Vital Equine (3) head the draft that also includes yearlings by Darley sires Lonhro, Domesday, Dubawi and Consolidator.