If a major yearling sale is on in Australia or New Zealand and ENCOSTA DE LAGO has yearlings being sold, you can always rely on seeing a big Hong Kong contingent. Each year the Hong Kong Jockey Club and various representatives from the small island nation buy up big and bring our Australian and New Zealand bred yearlings home to race in Hong Kong.
Encosta is a very popular sire in both Hong Kong and Australia
Hong Kong buyers are always hard to outbid when a good yearling by ENCOSTA DE LAGO arrives in the sale ring. His success in Hong Kong as a sire has been great in recent years as was highlighted on Tuesday evening. Six year-old gelding PENGLAI XIANZI took out the feature event, the Chinese New Year Cup in a comfortable fashion winning by a length for trainer Tony Cruz. Penglai Xianzi’s record now improves to an impressive eight wins and nine placings from 41 starts after his victory in the 1400m event. The Chinese New Year Raceday is considered a major event in Hong Kong and is seen as an auspicious occasion for owners to celebrate a victory.
Son of Encosta De Lago, Penglai Xianzi won his 8th race overnight.
There is no luck involved in the imposing record that Encosta de Lago has built up throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Last season he was the champion sire in Hong Kong with his progeny led by Gr1 winner and Hong Kong Staying Champion LIBERATOR who is a full sister to Dynamic Syndications unraced filly, MISS HUFFLEPUFF. This success follows on from the past achievements of Encosta De Lago’s former world champion Hong Kong trained sprinter Sacred Kingdom.
Miss Hufflepuff (by Encosta De Lago) is a full brother to Hong Kong champion, Liberator
Once again the HKJC swooped in for Encosta De Lago yearlings at the 2013 NZB Premier Yearling sale paying NZ$300,000 and NZ$275,000 for two lovely Encosta’s. On the Gold Coast, his top lot at the Magic Millions sale went to Hong Kong for a whopping $460,000 for a colt from Sliding Cube.
Encosta is not just popular in Hong Kong. His progeny is still doing the job on the racetrack here in Australia siring winner after winner. Just last week, Breednet’s TARA MADGWICK highlighted two sons of ENCOSTA DE LAGO as ones to watch after impressive performances on track. Exciting young stayer VINE, a 4 ½ length winner at Sandown on Wednesday and BERKSHIRE, the full brother to dual Gr1 winner MNEMOSYNE were both stunning winners sired by ENCOSTA DE LAGO.
With 22 winners over the last 30 days, his good run of form looks set to continue with six of his progeny going around on Saturday at Flemington and Rosehill. Despite all looking to be solid chances, the Encosta De Lago runners will be headlined by Dynamic’s own filly, SECRET DELIGHT who will line up in the Gr2 Light Fingers Stakes. The David Payne trained filly has come back a bigger and stronger after an already impressive first preparation when she was placed at stakes level. She has two trials to get her ready leading into this event and team Dynamic could not be happier with her progress. With a little luck, we definitely think she is capable of finishing in the mix on Saturday at Gr2 level.
Secret Delight win look to add more black type to her page on Saturday
Dynamic has had plenty of success with Encosta De Lago previously and with the filly that we just purchased, we are confident of more in the future. Because of his continual success, Encosta De Lago’s progeny are always in high demand at the major yearling sales so Dynamic were wrapped to pick up an impeccably bred Encosta De Lago filly for just $90,000 at the Magic Millions sales.
Our filly, out of PRETTY FLAMINGO, is closely related to the horse dubbed “the $5 million mare, MILANOVA” after she was sold on retirement to breeding juggernaut Coolmore Stud for the aforementioned figure. PRETTY FLAMINGO herself was a $625,000 weanling purchase however unfortunately never made it to the track. If our filly were to live up to her family’s background and earn some black type, then she could be a very lucrative proposition when she retires to stud. She will be trained at Rosehill by Chris Waller who already has a big opinion of the filly as can be seen below.
Our ENCOSTA DE LAGO - PRETTY FLAMINGO filly prior to sale at the Magic Millions
What we do know is the imposing record that Encosta has built up over his career at stud. He has sired a total of 93 Stakes winner with 100 horses placed at stakes level. To add to this impressive statistic, he sits on 898 individual winners and is sure to crack through the 900 barrier within the next couple of weeks. Whether his progeny is running in Hong Kong, Australia or anywhere around the world, they just keep performing at the top level and doing a good job for their owners. For more information on our classy Encosta De Lago filly, stay tuned to the Dynamic website.
Jay Mathieson