DARLEY colt Denman can confirm his rating as Australia’s Champion 3YO Colt in the G1 Australian Guineas at Flemington tomorrow.
Denman (3c Lonhro – Peach by Vain) is coming off commanding victories in the Listed Wellington Racing Club Stakes, Listed Zeditave Stakes and G2 D’Urban Stakes at Caulfield.
He was a G1 winner of the Golden Rose last spring but then failed when stepped up to a mile in the G1 Caulfield Guineas. He was coming to the end of a long campaign in Melbourne and was also caught wide without cover at Caulfield.
Darley’s Australian managing director Henry Plumptre will recommend to Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor John Ferguson that Denman continue his career on the international stage after the autumn carnival.
“Denman is an obvious choice to take overseas,” Plumtre said. “Darley is a global business and I am sure it would give Sheikh Mohammed great pleasure to have an international G1 horse from Australia.
Denman will propel his sire Lonhro up premiership ladder on the Australian sires’ table if he wins the $750,000 Flemington feature. He is currently in fourth place on $3.95 million behind Street Cry ($6.09), Encosta de Lago ($5.27) and Redoute’s Choice ($4.48).
That’s a super statistic considering Lonhro’s oldest are only four year-olds!
HEART OF DREAMS claimed his first G1 in the Australian Guineas last year and he can make it an other Super Saturday for connections in the G1 Australia Cup tomorrow.
Heart Of Dreams is by Glenlogan Park sire Show A Heart and his fighting spirit has rewarded owner Larry Bartle and trainer Mick Price with 5 wins and $1.18 million in prizemoney.
Since winning a Kilmore maiden in September 2008, Heart Of Dreams has always been on song for the big occasion.
His second wins was in the Listed Winning Edge Stakes at Caulfield and that was followed by the G1 Australian Guineas, G2 Phar Lap Stakes and G1 Underwood Stakes.
Another enlightening statistic is that he has never been passed by another horse in 15 starts apart from the 2009 Cox Plate when at the end of his spring campaign. He simply refuses to lie down against quality opposition.
He has competed at G1 level on five occasions winning the Guineas and the Underwood. He was racing third up from a spell in both those races and is also third up in the Australia Cup on Saturday.
He finished second in two others behind Whobegotyou in the Yalumba Stakes and Typhoon Tracy in the Orr Stakes. His only other G1 outing was in last year’s Cox Plate.
Those facts and figures will give Heart Of Dreams a head-start in the Australian Cup and his fighting spirit will do the rest.
KING PULSE can complete a Group 1 double on either side of the Tasman for Mike Moroney this Saturday. The Flemington trainer also sends Monaco Consul (High Chaparral) around in the NZ Derby earlier in the day.
Moroney’s Ballymore Stable came within a whisker of grabbing a G1 double at his home track on October 31 last year. King Pulse was beaten in a head-bobbing finish by Headway in the Coolmore Stakes before Monaco Consul triumphed in the Victorian Derby.
King Pulse (3g Canny Lad – Pleasure Ground by Arena) can make amends when he races first-up in the Newmarket. He completed a meteoric rise up the rankings earlier this season winning at Geelong and Caulfield before the Makybe filly collared him right on the line at headquarters.
Moroney bought King Pulse for $55,000 out of the Lomar Park draft at the 2008 Inglis Classic yearling sale. He is the latest top-class descendant from Lomar Park’s foundation mare Social Smile.
His dam Pleasure Ground was a Rosehill winner and she retired after running second to Ponte Piccolo in the 2005 Keith Nolan Classic (LR) at Kembla.
Lomar Park is already on the Newmarket honour-roll as the breeder of Razor Sharp who was a back-to-back winner of Australia’s premier sprint in 1982-83.