WA-based sire Viscount has been flying high with champion sprinter Rocket Man and he sired another Group 1 winner when Kidnapped stretched out to 2500m in the SAJC Derby at Morphettville on Super Sunday.

Kidnapped (3g Viscount – Youthful Presence by Dehere) came with a rush to edge out Red Colossus (Testa Rossa) in an all-interstate finish to the classic.  The Derby winner is raced by Sheikh Mohammed and took time to find his feet in Sydney last year.  Trainer Peter Snowden decided he would be better placed racing the anti-clockwise direction and, after unplaced runs at Warwick Farm and Hawkesbury in April, he was transferred to Melbourne and won second-up at Flemington in June.

He broke through at stakes level in the Listed Jayco Stakes on Caulfield Cup day and banked more black-type with wins in the G3 VRC Carbine Club Stakes and G2 MRC Sandown Guineas.

Kidnapped is a half brother to Listed SAJC Hill Smith Stakes winner Deledio (Testa Rossa).  Their dam has an unraced two-year old named Energetic (Octagonal), a yearling filly by Canny Lad and a weanling colt by Lonhro.

Viscount was Australia’s Champion 2YO in 2000-01 and he returned the following season to beat older gallopers in the G1 George Main Stakes at Randwick.  He retired to Woodlands Stud but relocated to Neville Duncan’s Oakland Park Stud a year before Bob Ingham sold up to Darley.  

There were numerous Viscounts in the package and Sheikh Mohammed had already won a Group 1 with Viscount mare Neroli in the 2009 Queen Of The Turf Stakes at Rosehill.

His champion sprinter Rocket Man is primed to go one better in this year’s edition of the G1 KrisFlyer Sprint in Singapore on May 16.  He was runner-up to world champion Sacred Kingdom in the 2009 KrisFlyer.  Trainer Patrick Shaw has designs on Royal Ascot if all goes well at Kranji on Sunday week.

Rocket Man (4g Viscount – Macrosa by McGinty) comes from a very successful family developed by WA breeders John and Joan Blackburn.  He is a half-brother to South African based Our Giant (Giant’s Causeway) who has won at the elite level in the Mercury Sprint at Clairwood and the Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein.

Viscount has sired 155 winners at a 55% strike-rate.  He covered 90 mares at a $9,900 fee in his second season at Oakland Park last year.

Darley has pensioned Viscount’s sire Quest for Fame.  The 1990 English Derby winner has sired 44 stakes winners with prizemoney totalling US$30 million.

Quest for Fame (Rainbow Quest) was a homebred for Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms.  He also stood at Juddmonte Farm and Gainesway Farm in Kentucky.