Australian racing may have not been represented by a runner on the opening day at Royal Ascot however that didn’t stop Australian’s cheering loudly the exciting deeds of 2yo colt
“THE WOW SIGNAL” to victory in the stallion making
Gr2 Coventry Stakes over 1206m.
THE WOW SIGNAL wins the Gr2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot
The Wow Signal becomes the first Stakes Winner for 2010 Royal Ascot hero
STARSPANGLEDBANNER.
STARSPANGLEDBANNER
The Wow Signal is the first winner for his dam Muravka. She is an unraced daughter of
High Chaparral and a ½ sister to stakes-winner
Tolpuddle.
STARSPANGLEDBANNER has major fertility issues due to genetic deformity of his sperm and is struggling for live foals on the ground. He stood his first season at stud at
Coolmore Ireland where he only got 33 mares in foal which produced 28 live foals. He then stood at
Coolmore in the Hunter Valley for his first Southern Hemisphere season and the numbers were the same.
Australian Stud Book fertility figures showing he only achieved 26% live foals from a book of 106 mares in Australia. He returned to Ireland for his second season and had no luck at all.
From these limited numbers in his first Northern Hemisphere crop, to date
14 have been named – 7 raced – 4 winners – 2 placegetters.
This is an unbelievable feat. Now he has added the much sought after
Gr2 Coventry Stakes to his resume.
His 4 winners so far –
THE WOW SIGNAL, MOONRAKER, EFFUSIVE, ANTHEM ALEXANDER were all nominated to race at the Royal Ascot meeting.
THE WOW SIGNAL has kicked off in sensational style, so it will be interesting to see if any of the other 3 can add much desired black-type.
THE WOW SIGNAL winning by 9 lengths at Ayr
THE WOW SIGNAL had always showed his trainer John Quinn explosive talent and he told Racing UK reporters that “He would not hear of the colt being beaten on debut”. His prediction and judgement was correct as the powerhouse toyed with his rivals on that day to win his maiden in a jog by a widening 9 lengths.
The horse was subject to huge offers after the win and was subsequently sold to new owners Al Shaqab Racing.
At just his second start in the
Coventry Stakes, which is a straight track run over 1206m, the big field of 16 thundered up the centre of the track from the outset.
The Wow Signal – a 5/1 equal favourite had drawn barrier 1 which at
Royal Ascot is actually a disadvantage on the straight course as that made the horse the widest runner throughout.
As the gates opened, The Wow Signal was straight on the bridle and travelling well for Frankie Dettori.
Restrained a ½ length off the leading runners who were in the centre of the pack,
The Wow Signal was left on pace and facing the breeze throughout.
As the big field thundered to the furlong the sprint was on in earnest and the strength and acceleration was obvious. The Wow Signal extended and went a length and a half clear inside the final 50m before easing in the final 25 metres to score a dominant win.
There were no excuses for those he defeated, arguably the
best field of 2yo colts in Europe at this point of time.
The Wow Signal had a bad barrier, was on pace throughout, wide and facing the breeze. He did all the work and still had the power to bash ‘em up !
His trainer John Quinn said "He has come and beaten the best colts available today and he has been up there all the way, he wasn't held up to run a race, he was right there on the speed.”
"I think he deserves a lot of credit. He didn't just come from out of the pack he was there all the time. He could have capitulated but at the line he was going away."
The team at
Dynamic Syndications backed
STARSPANGLEDBANNER as a first season sire and went out to purchase a yearling by him.
With only limited numbers to choose from, unfortunately most of the limited numbers simply didn’t rate well enough to make the cut on our genetic rating systems and Best Of Sale rating scores.
At the Magic Millions of the 7 lots on offer, only 2 of these lots (both fillies) passed our ratings scorecards. We felt the other qualified lot was worthy on conformation but in our opinion she was just too small.
We secured the one we wanted - the first filly offered in Australia by the sire.
Our Filly
She was
Lot 160 at the
Magic Millions Sales. A daughter of
VAZIRI from a terrific
Black-Type pedigree.
With a rating score of
A 222% and a
Best Of Sale rating score of 1.0 and were delighted to buy her for just
$65,000 + GST.
Interestingly, the other filly we liked at the sale saw two bidders get into a war and it ended up selling for $170,000 + GST. We had liked her but considered it too risky for its lack of size.
We had chosen a trainer for our filly but haven’t gone to market at this point of time.
However we have had a rethink about the intended trainer and now will offer the filly with a different trainer who is noted for having success with 2yo’s.
Especially with how well the
STARSPANGLEDBANNER progeny are performing.
It’s very interesting to think that the sire
STARPANGLEDBANNER was a handy 2yo himself however he was at his best on the track as a 3yo – just as his own sire
CHOISIR.
To see them running early is very exciting.
Below is a series of photos taken of our filly:
STARSPANGLEDBANNER x VAZIRI 17/8/2012
At the Yearling Sales.
25 February 2014
17 June 2014