POPULAR Scone breeder Senga Bissett’s faith in first season sire Pluck has paid dividends with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner delivering her two `cracking’ foals with two more to come.
Bisset sent four mares to Pluck in his opening season at Vinery in 2012 including the well-related Flying First Class who foaled this striking colt at Ashleigh Stud on August 15.
“I am sending the mare back because I am so happy with this foal,” a delighted Bissett told the Sportsman this week.
“I’ve got another Pluck foal that is very nice but it is bay/brown, it’s not as black as this colt, but it’s a nice foal too. I’ve got two more to come and I am looking forward to them.”
Bissett said the son of Flying First Class will “definitely go to the sales” when the times comes and while the family already boasts several notable stakeswinners like six-times Group 1 winner Slight Chance, Queensland Derby winner Brambles and prominent sire Dane Shadow, there is scope for more.
“The Lonhro half-brother to the mare made $220,000 then went to Hong Kong and sold very well at their sale, so I am hoping that he might go on and is going to put some black-type into the family,” said Bissett.
And while this colt boasts an obvious resemblance to Pluck, he could easily be mistaken for (grandisre) More Than Ready.
Indeed it was More Than Ready’s affinity with Flying Spur mares (Sebring, Ashokan, Cambiaso, Landing, Raceway and Hot `N’ Ready) was another of the reasons why Bissett chose to send the mare to Pluck.
Flying First Class was one of 150 mares to visit Pluck at Vinery in his opening season.
Pluck’s father, More Than Ready, is proving exactly what it means to be a gloabl sire at present with high profile progeny working in tandem on both sides of the Atlantic at present.
Crack son Verrazano can all but assure himself of USA Champion 3YO honours when he seeks to add this weekend’s Grade 1 Traver’s Stakes to his thumping 9 3/4-lens Haskell Invitational victory from last start – his 6th win form 7 appearances with a combined margin of 46 3/4-lens.
Meanwhile in the UK, Sheikh Mohammed’s exciting two-year-old Strategical justified his 1/20 on quote with an emphatic 11-lens win under 59kg in a 1000m race ay Yarmouth earlier in this month.
The colt aims to become More Than Ready’s 118th stakeswinner when he tackles the Listed Julia Graves Roses Stakes at York this weekend.
