Bernard Kenny
As Twin Hills says ‘Denman is your man if you are looking for those must-have qualities of speed and durability. A proven source of speed and durability who is listed in the top 15 sires of winners nationally.’
Now standing above his own sire Lonhro as a sire of winners, Denman has his superstar Hong Kong sprinter Hot King Prawn rated higher than himself. In being one of the best of his sire of sires Lonhro, his son Deprive recently won four races in succession at Randwick including the June Stakes.
A brown at 16.1½hh, Denman is free of Danehill blood and full of big-name breeding, being considered a proven outcross sire. His Canny Lad half-sister Ouachita is the dam of Golden Slipper winner Kiamichi, while Group 1 winning Preserve is a triple Group producer.
Denman had a pure stallion-making 3yo career in winning the Run to The Rose 1300m in August, followed by a 1¾ length victory in the sire-shaping Golden Rose Stakes of 1400m. Then he won the Stan Fox Stakes before finishing unplaced in the Caulfield Guineas.
As a mid-season 3yo Denman made it three wins in succession as the odds-on favourite in winning the Zeditave Stakes 1200m, Manfred Stakes 1400m and Caulfield Autumn Stakes 1400, before retiring when fourth in the Caulfield Guineas 1600m. At two-years he won three of his four starts.
Oliver Tait certainly struck gold with his son of Fastnet Rock, in Smart Missile having the 3yo filly Maid of Heaven take out the Spring Champion Stakes of 2000m at Royal Randwick, trained by Mark Newnham.
Also last season, Smart Melody won the Thousand Guineas Prelude and Cap D’Antibes Stakes, Beauty the William Crockett Stakes, the unbeaten 2yo Missile Mantra the Redoute’s Choice Stakes with former Euclase Stakes winner I’ll Have A Bit being stakes placed last season.
In siring 113 winners form 208 starters Smart Missile finished in the top 15 sires on the Champion Sires listing and in the top 10 Sires by Winners, having commenced his career as Champion First Season Sire in 2015-16.
A bay standing 16.1hh, Smart Missile rates highly as a sire-son of Fastnet Rock, now the sire of 37 Group 1 winners. From a half-sister to Champion First Season Sire in Northern Meteor, Smart Missile is a half-brother to the stakes winners Surge Ahead and Kiss from A Rose.
Rated the best juvenile by Fastnet Rock, Smart Missile was unbeaten at two in winning the Breeders’ Plate 1000m and then the Todman Stakes of 1200m. At three he won the Run to The Rose of 1200m and was a close second in the sire-making Golden Rose Stakes.
Twin Hills foundation sire Odyssey Moon has his first yearlings selling next year, and is a good-looking speed horse by record breaking now legendry sire Snitzel.
A brown standing 16.0½hh he is from the placed Arch mare Run to The Moon, who is also the maternal sire of Champion US Sire Uncle Mo, and is half-sister to the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama Stakes winner Jostle.
In addition to winning the important Standish Handicap of 1200m at four, Odyssey Moon won the Inglis Nursery 1000m on debut as a 2yo and was second in the Randwick Sires’ Produce Stakes, Skyline Stakes and third in the Pago Pago Stakes.
At three-years he won the Bellarine Handicap 1100m at Flemington and the Ladbrokes Cash In Handicap of 1300m, and was second in the Carbine Club Stakes, third in the Hilton Nicholas Straight Six, AR Creswick Stakes, Mitchell McKenzie Stakes, Bendigo Guineas and fourth in the Zeditave Stakes.