WA Derby double in sight for Blackfriars

Ascot trainer Bruce Hyde believes Blackfriars can complete a running double in the G2 WATC Derby.

The Durham Lodge champion sired Rohan to win this year’s Derby and Hyde has long-range plans for Friar’s Luck in April 2013.

Friar’s Luck (2g Blackfriars – Mill Green by Salieri) looked every inch a classic candidate when he powered home for a convincing victory in the Westspeed Nursery Hcp (1600m) at Belmont last month.

The win was also a promising pointer for Durham Lodge leading into the Perth Magic Millions Winter Sale this Sunday, July 29.  The Muchea nursery has 33 foals going under the hammer and one of the highlights is the three-quarter sister to Friar’s Luck catalogued as Lot 67.

The Blackfriars – Scene One filly is also closely related to G3 winner Mansion House.  A second-crop son of Blackfriars, he won the G3 Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic and was also third home in the 2007 running of the G1 Railway Stakes.

Friar’s Luck is the latest member of the family to emerge with designs on a black-type career.

“I tipped him out straight after that win over a mile at Belmont,” Hyde said.  “We will give him a good spell and that means missing the WA Guineas.  But I’m convinced he’s more of a 2400m horse, anyway.”

Friar’s Luck had been in the stable for six months prior to breaking through at his sixth start.  “We were going to go down the Karrakatta – WA Sires’ Produce route,” Hyde explained.  “That was probably flying a bit high but then he put a leg through a fence.

“There wasn’t much damage but it meant we had to ease up and concentrate on Belmont.”

Friar’s Luck was an $18,000 buy from Durham Lodge as a yearling.  Hyde also part-owns the gelding in a syndicate that includes Ian Philp who signed the sale sheet at the 2011 Perth Magic Millions.

Blackfriars is less than a week away from claiming the Sunspeed sires’ premiership for the second year in a row.  And with the likes of Friar’s Luck coming through the ranks, he will be favoured to make it a hat-trick of titles in 2012-13.

ONE WITH A FUTURE
Blackfriars – Scene One filly catalogued as Lot 67 this Sunday