Outstanding Tasmanian based galloper The Cleaner made the transition to weight-for-age in style at Moonee Valley on Saturday with a popular win in the Group Two Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m).
A multiple stakes winner on the Apple Isle, The Cleaner was sent out the favourite for what was his toughest test to date. And he didn’t let down his supporters leading home a quality field in the feature event.
The win was 17th in a 42 start career for the bold front runner. His earnings have raced past $726,000 – not bad considering he cost his trainer Mick Burles just $10,000 at the 2009 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale.
“He’s a bloody champion isn’t he,” Burles beamed to the media after the race while saying the Cox Plate was well and truly on the agenda.
“This was a test to see whether he could measure up to the runners. I think he did.”
“I’m over the moon.”
“Just to have a runner let alone try and win the Cox Plate. It’s not beyond him because he’s got a lot of guts.”
Burles said the star of his stable would head back to his Longford stable before crossing the Bass Strait again to tackle the JRA Cup (2040m) at Moonee Valley on September 26.
By former leading Tasmanian based Sadler’s Wells sire Savoire Vivre and bred by the Atkins family, The Cleaner is one of seven winners for his grand producing dam Dash of Scotch.
A two time winner by Blessington, Dash of Scotch has also thrown the stakes winners Private Nip and Strait Dash. Private Nip in turn is the dam of another stakes winner, Twenty Grand.
In Sydney the untapped filly Winx extended her unbeaten run to three with an outstanding two and three quarter length win in the Group Two Furious Stakes (1200m).
In leading home fellow Magic Millions graduate Alpha Miss in a field that also contained Group One winners Earthquake and Peggy Jean, Winx emerged as one of the new stars of the three-year-old crop.
Prepared by Sydney’s premier trainer Chris Waller, Winx was purchased by Magic Bloodstock for $230,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from the Coolmore Stud draft.
“That was pretty special,” Waller’s stable representative Liam Prior said. “She hasn’t fully developed yet. She’s always been a filly we’ve held in very high regard.”
“She displayed plenty of ability during the winter months, but to win as dominantly as she did was a little surprising.”
A daughter of star international sire Street Cry, Winx is the first runner for the former quality New Zealand based race mare Vergas Showgirl.
Vegas Showgirl, by Al Akbar, won two stakes races and was fourth in the Group One Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes before retiring to stud.
Her sire was in the news last weekend when his three-year-old colt Chivalry, a graduate of the same Gold Coast based sale, flew home for a breathtaking win in the Group Three HDF McNeil Stakes at Caulfield.
Meanwhile, Wouldnt it Be Nice scored his first group race success when he steamed home to win Saturday’s Group Three Concorde Stakes at Randwick.
Prepared by Paul Perry, who put the polish on his star sire Choisir, Wouldnt it Be Nice found plenty in the straight when asked by Sam Clipperton to reel in the leaders and race away to win by over a length.
“That was a great win,” Clipperton told reporters.
“I thought he could his race and run really well because the speed was always going to be on and it was just going to be a matter of him getting through the going.”
Wouldnt it Be Nice is the 63rd individual stakes winner for Danehill Dancer’s former globe trotting sprinting son Choisir.
He cost Perry and connections just $40,000 from the Southern Cross Breeders draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2012.
He is from the American bred and Canadian stakes winning Tactical Cat mare Mia Cat Dancer – a winner of five races including one at two.
Mia Cat Dancer, a daughter of the stakes performed Mt. Livermore mare Master Print, won at distances from six furlongs to a mile prior to retiring to stud. Three time stakes placed, she earned big bold black type by winning the Lilac Handicap at Stampede Park in Calgary.
