Vinery Stud’s explosive Group 1 winning sprinter Exceedance will hit the Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale with both barrels in January.
Exceedance has 20 first-crop yearlings catalogued for the first major of the sales-season and he will vie for popularity among the many freshman sires represented on the Gold Coast. Vinery bloodstock manager Adam White is overseeing the preparation of seven colts and a filly that are already a couple of weeks into their sale preps with the home-base team.
“We’ve seen them develop from foals when it was already obvious they were athletes,” White said when previewing the draft by Exceedance. “They’ve grown into outstanding yearlings with scope and strength and we’re confident they will be very popular when we start parading here and on the sale-grounds. He was a spectacular winner of his only start at two and, over the right mares, their precocity will start making a difference this time next year.”
Exceedance is a son of world-champion sire Exceed And Excel and he trained on at three for devastating victories over Bivouac in the San Domenico Stakes Gr.3 at Rosehill and the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes Gr.1 at Flemington.
Vinery has two Exceedance colts on Day 1 of the Magic Millions with the son of More Than Ready mare Meow (Lot 110) bred on the same cross as Bivouac who went on to win a VRC Newmarket Gr.1 following that earlier loss down the straight-six. “He’s a typical Exceedance. Strong and forward. His older half-sister by Spirit Of Boom sold to Cliff Brown for $440,000 at this year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.”
Vinery’s sole Exceedance filly (Lot 263) is from British-bred mare Pussycat Dream (Oasis Dream). “Her dam is four-from-four at stud. She’s an attractive filly, a dark bay/brown just like her sire and she looks an early type.”
The best of Pussycat Dream’s stock to date has been Champion Singapore 4YO Mare What’s New (Casino Prince) who was a Listed winner of the Stewards’ Cup and Silver Bowl at Kranji in 2019.
The Exceedance – Arctic Success colt (Lot 622) will be one of the highlights of Day 3 trade at the Gold Coast. He’s a half-brother to the Chris Waller-trained mare Roots who will be in the early stages of a highly-anticipated autumn campaign.
Waller signalled Group 1 plans for Roots (Press Statement) after she signed off spring with a facile victory in the VRC Inglis Bracelet (1600m) at Flemington earlier this month. “The Exceedance colt is a very nice type and the mare is a proven producer,” White commented. “Gai Waterhouse also has a good opinion of her Star Turn 3yo Star Mistress.”
Besides the first crop by Exceedance, Vinery sells yearlings by All Too Hard and Star Turn plus champion sires Snitzel, Written Tycoon and Fastnet Rock among others in a 27-lot consignment.
The Gold Coast Magic Millions has been the launching pad for Vinery graduates the calibre of Farnan, Artorius, Atlantic Jewel, Rubick, Exhilarates, Commanding Jewel and Letzbeglam.
The latest to make an impression is Garza Blanca and a $700,000 price-tag at the Gold Coast in 2021 looked money well-spent when he erased a long-standing track-record at Cranbourne on Saturday for trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
Garza Blanca (I Am Invincible) clocked 69.82s to win the Frankston 3yo Hcp (1200m) by three lengths which bettered the old mark set by subsequent Group 1 Cox Plate winner El Segundo (Pins) way back in 2004.
“We’ve always had a high opinion of him,” Maher said of the Vinery graduate who tips the scales at 580kg. “He’s pretty exciting and has quite a lot of upside. He’s very big and still quite raw. We’re contemplating a tilt at the Magic Millions 3yo Guineas (RL, 1400m) at the Gold Coast in January.”
Leading agents Mark Player and Roberts Roulston targeted Garza Blanca for a syndicate that includes Noorilim Park’s Peter Carrick, Neil Werrett, Gerry Ryan, David Kobritz, Colin Madden and Richard Pegum.
Player’s strike-rate is second to none with yearlings and Written Tycoon colt Ole Kirk is an obvious highlight. He cost $675,000 was purchased to stand at Vinery following Group 1 victories in the ATC Golden Rose Stakes and MRC Caulfield Guineas.
