Caption: She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain-Courgette by Charge Forward)
Fresh from getting his first Gr.1 winner in Whisky Baron and as the sire of the current Golden Slipper favourite She Will Reign, the Gr.1 winner and Cox Plate runner-up Manhattan Rain has relocated to Victoria for the new breeding season. The $1.3m earner is standing at the Campbell family’s Blue Gum Farm and his fee will remain at $16,500.
It is a fitting new home for the young horse who has stood at Arrowfield in the Hunter Valley since 2010 as his sire Encosta de Lago (Fairy King (USA)-Shoal Creek by Star Way (GB)) began his hugely successful stud career at Blue Gum before moving on to Coolmore. Winner of the VATC Invitation Stakes-Gr.1 when trained by Lee Freedman, Encosta de Lago, pensioned from stud duty since 2014, was twice Champion Australian Sire (2007-08, 2008-09) and left more than 110SW including champion sprinter Chautauqua, star fillies Alinghi, Lashed and Mnemosyne, HK Horse of the Year Sacred Kingdom and Gr.1 winner and brilliant short-lived sire Northern Meteor, who has several young sons at stud.
Manhattan Rain owns a high class female line too as his dam Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad-Dancing Show (USA) by Nijinsky) also produced the multiple Gr.1 winner and champion sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill (USA)) and his Gr.1-winning brother Platinum Scissors among nine winners. She has several daughters continuing this good job including the Gr.3 winner Sliding Cube (Rock of Gibraltar (IRE)), dam of Coolmore-based speedster, the Gr.2 winner Rubick, also a son of Encosta de Lago as is another Gr.2 winner, the NZ based (The Oaks) sire Niagara (ex River Song by Fusaichi Pegasus (USA)), whose third dam is Dancing Show.
“We put forward a proposal to stand Manhattan Rain when he retired from the racetrack,” Blue Gum Farm’s Philip Campbell said. “We rated him highly then and we rate him even more highly now. I believe he is a fantastic fit for the Victorian breeding industry as there is simply no guesswork involved. He’s a proven and consistent source of quality Group performers and his yearlings are in demand at the sales.”
Manhattan Rain was a very good two year-old and won the AJC Sires’ Produce-Gr.1 (1400m) and the Skyline Stakes-Gr.3 (1200m) at Randwick and finished third in the Golden Slipper-Gr.1 and Champagne Stakes-Gr.1 as well as placing second in the Canonbury-LR (1100m) and over 1100m at Rosehill, all his starts at that age. He was unlucky not to win in five starts at three, finishing second to champion So You Think in the Cox Plate-Gr.1 and third to Starspangledbanner in the Caulfield Guineas-Gr.1 and to Demerit in the Guineas Prelude-Gr.3. His earnings of $1,311,200 are the best by any entire son of Encosta de Lago.
A very consistent sire since retiring to stud, he’s riding the crest of a wave in early 2017 as his four year-old son Whisky Baron (ex Tazkara (FR) by Sinndar) beat South African Horse of the Year Legal Eagle and Gr.1 winner Captain America to land the country’s richest race, the R5m ($A498,000) Kenilworth Sun Met-Gr.1 (2000m) by 1.5 lengths when running 2:02.71 in late January for his fifth win in succession. His talented daughter She Will Reign (ex Courgette by Charge Forward) remains unbeaten after three starts, the $20,000 buy landing the Silver Slipper-Gr.2 (1100m) at Rosehill by 1.5 lengths as favourite on February 18 to become a firm favourite for the Golden Slipper.
They are among his 93 winners (190 wins) of $7.7m, giving him a 57.4% winners to starters ratio. His nine stakes winners (5.6%) also include the Gr.2 winner and Gr.1 placed Wild Rain (Rory’s Jester), Gr.2 winners Mooveovermanhattan (by Flying Spur and inbred to Rolls (USA)), Scarlet Rain (Exceed and Excel) and Listed winners Manhattan Street (Redoute’s Choice; inbred to Shantha’s Choice), Ondina (Mujadil) and Crafty (Sadler’s Wells; inbred to brothers Sadler’s Wells/Fairy King). He also has stakes placed runners from daughters of Danehill, Anabaa, Redoute’s Choice, El Prado (a son of Sadler’s Wells), Danzero, Flying Spur, Tale of the Cat (second dam of Manhattan Blues is by Star Way), Rock of Gibraltar, Hussonet, Zabeel (Sir Ivor male line; dam by Nureyev) and Red Ransom.
Whisky Baron, a $50,000 yearling purchase by Craig Roscoe and Joey Ramsden at Easter 2014, is the first Gr.1 winner for the Aga Khan Studs/Arrowfield joint venture and is from the unraced Tazkara, a daughter of Arc winner Sinndar (Grand Lodge). She is also dam of two multiple winners by Flying Spur and the juvenile winner Downtown Manhattan, another by Manhattan Rain. Tazkara has a three year-old filly Pretty Snitzel in work here and foaled another Snitzel filly after returning to France and then a colt by Excelebration. Next dam is stakes placed Tashiriya (Kenmare), dam of six winners including Gr.3 winner Tashelka and Listed winner and Gr.1 placed Tashkandi (Polish Precedent). Third dam Tashtiya (Shergar) was a Gr.3 winner at Royal Ascot. Whisky Baron, trained by Brett Crawford for brothers Craig and Ross Kieswetter, has now won six races and placed six times in 13 starts for earnings of R3,436,828 ($A342,874). Sinndar’s sire, the dual Gr.1 winner Grand Lodge (USA) (Chief’s Crown (USA)-La Papagena by Habitat), stood in NSW for eight seasons (1995-2002) and left about 800 foals including Gr.1 winners Freemason, Ambulance, Hotel Grand (sire of Fiveandahalfstar) and Shogun Lodge and is often found in pedigrees here. His son Grandera (IRE) also shuttled briefly, as did his sire Chief’s Crown (Danzig-Six Crowns by Secretariat).
Bargain Inglis Classic buy She Will Reign was rated a “true chance” in the Golden Slipper by trainer Gary Portelli after her strong win in the Silver Slipper, where she came from back in the field to win easily for Ben Melham. Purchased for just $20,000 by Scott Darby of Darby Racing from the Ambergate Farm draft after being raised at Middlebrook Station for breeder Mr G. Bachell, she races for a big syndicate of owners and has earnings approaching $500,000. She is the first foal of her dam Courgette (Charge Forward-Our Farm Girl by Marscay), a winner of two races, and her half-sister by Shamus Award will be offered at Inglis Easter sale. Our Farm Girl is an unraced sister to Gimcrack Stakes-LR winner Millie and from the Reisling Slipper Trial-Gr.2 winner and AJC Oaks-Gr.1 runner-up Sunshine Sally (Cheraw-Lady Genevieve by Knightly Manner).
Interestingly Cheraw and Whisky Baron’s second dam sire Kenmare both hail from the Grey Sovereign male line. Cheraw is a son of Caro (by Fortino by Grey Sovereign) and inbred 4mx3f to Nasrullah, while Kenmare is by Zeddaan (by Grey Sovereign) and has Nasrullah 4mx4m, while his sire’s fourth dam Rivaz is a sister to Nasrullah. Charge Forward’s grandsire Roberto also has Nasrullah and his three parts brother Royal Charger 3×3, while Sinndar, dam sire of Whisky Baron also features multiples of Nasrullah and Royal Charger.
Wild Rain, another Manhattan Rain stakes winner, is also from a mare, North Flower, by a Nasrullah line sire in Rory’s Jester and with further Nasrullah in the dam line. This affinity with mares strong in Nasrullah and his family, and Manhattan Rain’s obvious liking for reinforcements of his sire’s dam line, his own female family and his grandsire’s brother Sadler’s Wells (and three-quarter brother Nureyev), are all worth considering when selecting mates for Manhattan Rain.
Mares by Umatilla (Miswaki) and Hurricane Sky (Star Watch) could be of particular interest as both a Gr.1-winning sire sons of Dancing Show (Nijinsky-Show Lady by Sir Ivor) and therefore half-brothers to Shantha’s Choice. Al Maher (Danehill), the VRC Australian Guineas-Gr.1 winner who has been such a good sire for Emirates Park, leaving Gr.1 winners like Delicacy, Fat Al, Diamond Drille and Almalad, is out of Show Dancing, a daughter of Don’t Say Halo (USA) and Show Dancing and is another whose daughters should suit, as should others featuring Manhattan Rain’s influential fourth dam Best in Show in their pedigree. These include Last Tycoon, El Gran Senor, Spinning World and Denon.
Published: March 2017