Quality Adelaide galloper Naratel completed a big red centre carnival for Magic Millions graduates when he scored a comprehensive win in the $101,000 Alice Springs Cup (2000m) at Pioneer Park.
Prepared at Morphettville by highly regarded horseman Phillip Stokes, Naratel packed too many punches for his rivals and he cruised home to give Dom Tourneur a fourth win in the feature race.
“I was happy in the run,” Tourneur told the Northern Territory News. “Probably 600 (metres) out I knew I had the race won.”
“No horse was travelling better and once I let him go he just lengthened and continued to find the line.”
Tourneur paid tribute to Stokes and his team for having the six-year-old spot on for his main mission in the Alice.
“It’s great when a plan comes to fruition. We set him for this after (winning) the Port Augusta Cup and Phillip trained the horse to the minute and he really came through and did the job.”
“He’s going really well. He loves the dirt. He’s trained really well on the track and travelled well, so I was quite confident going into the race.”
“Hopefully we can go on to Darwin from here,” Tourneur summed up.
A gelded son of King of Prussia, Naratel has turned out a great money spinner for connections after being purchased from the 2006 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale for $6,500 by senior part owner David Brook.
The Greta West Stud graduate is one of five winners for the three time Melbourne winning Our Poetic Prince mare Princess Kara.
One of her winners, the Encosta de Lago mare Costa Kara, has produced the Melbourne stakes placegetter and Singapore winner Teskara.
Naratel has won six and placed in a further six races from 29 starts and earned over $156,000 and that figure looks set to rise with the Darwin Cup riches now on the radar.
In Monday’s big race Naratel ($6.50) cruised home to beat the last start Alice Springs winner Agarkar ($8) by a length and a half, while Blackbriar ($7) was a further length and a quarter back in third place.
The win of Naratel followed the impressive come from behind success of quality sprinter Awe and Wonder in the $71,000 Pioneer Sprint (1200m) on Saturday.
A $165,000 purchase by former trainer Gai Waterhouse, who incidentally was a guest at the carnival, Awe and Wonder notched career win seven when he steamed home under Paul Denton to beat Hidden Surprise.
“It’s a huge thrill,” winning trainer Viv Oldfield told the Northern Territory News.
“It looked like he didn’t handle the stuff coming back on him early on and he got too far out of his ground and realistically, the bird had flown.”
“Probably at the turn I thought if he found a hole he could run home for third, a bit closer and I thought he was a chance for second and then right on the line he rolled them,” Oldfield added.
Awe and Wonder ($4.20 fav) edged out fellow Magic Millions graduate Hidden Surprise ($4.80) to win by a head.
Darwin sprinter Lucid Reflection ($8) was another half length back in third place – not far ahead of Gap Express ($26) in a busy finish.
Awe and Wonder is a half brother to the classy Sydney sprinter, the group performed five time winner Kiloton.
From the Melbourne and Brisbane winning Last Tycoon mare Mystifying, he hails from one of the best families in the Australian Stud Book.
Those in the family include stars Bentley Biscuit, So Gorgeous, Tipungwuti, Wild Queen, Euphoria, Miss Minden, Christmas Tree, Light Up the World, Cumbria, Forehand, Presenting and Fleet.
Another of the carnival’s biggest winners was Miss Iceland – successful in the $25,000 Queen of the Desert Stakes (1200m).
A daughter of Rohatyn, she is a graduate of the Tolka Stud draft at the 2007 Adelaide Yearling Sale.
