Last Saturday was one to remember for Peters Investments and Oakland Park after they welcomed winners at Belmont and then shared Broodmare Of The Year honours at the WA Thoroughbred Racing Awards.
In the afternoon, Peters Investments homebred Arcadia Grace won the Crown Perth Hcp (1300m) and Oakland Park resident Sessions sired Sockoff to victory in the TABtouch Westspeed Platinum Hcp (1000m).
Hours later at the Westin Hotel, Bob Peters and Oakland Park’s Neville Duncan were celebrating the accomplishments of their mares Broadway Belle (Redoute’s Choice) and Stormy Nova (Metal Storm) respectively.
Arcadia Grace defied a drift in pre-post betting to come from last for her new trainer Michael Grantham at Belmont. “She’s settled in pretty good with Michael but she would settle in anywhere,” Peters said. “There’s not much of her and we’ve probably been doing the wrong thing keeping her sprinting.
“Her mother (Arcadia Dream) won a WA Derby so we will start stepping her up to 1400m and 1600m.”
Sessions mare Sockoff ran her rivals into the ground for a Loloma Farm Syndicate at Belmont. Trainer Dion Luciani added blinkers second-up over 1000m and she bounced straight to the front before breaking clear in the straight
“The egotistical manner of that win made it an easy watch,” Oakland Park reported. “She’s a daughter of our resident stallion Sessions and she absolutely dominated under Holly Watson.”
The WA Broodmare Of The Year was a tie for the third year in a row and, coincidentally, Broadway Belle won it with Star Encounter (Jeune) in 2019-20. Both awards came courtesy of her Group 1 star Regal Power (Pierro) who carried the cerise and white silks to victory in the 2019 Railway Stakes and 2021 Kingston Town Classic.
In another ironic twist, Peters Investments sold Stormy Nova to Oakland Park for $45,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. “It wasn’t one of my really good families at the time,” Peters recalled. “But she’s at the top level now and we’re still in a good position with two of her daughters at stud.”
Stormy Nova’s son Superstorm (Sebring) gave his dam a share the 2021-22 WA Broodmare of the Year award with wins in the G1 Cantala Stakes and Flemington and G2 Feehan Stakes at Moonee Valley.
Her latest foal is a new-season 2yo colt by Sessions named Sirius Storm. He was retained by Oakland Park to be raced by a partnership with trainer Adam Durrant.
WA Awards MC Darren McAullay with Bob Peters and Neville Duncan