Win the Golden Rose

by Bernard Kenny

Everest Ambassadors Sarah Roberts and James Stewart

Win the Golden Rose, and your 3yo colt will be a highly commercial stallion proposition. Now branded a ‘stallion making’ race the $1m Gr1 Golden Rose Stakes of 1400m has 11 of its 16 race winners retiring with healthy stud fees.

Joining the Caulfield Guineas as a premier ‘sire shaping’ 3yo event, it was last year’s winner The Autumn Sun who entered Arrowfield Stud as both the winner of the Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas, and is in-line to be Champion Australian 3YO of 2018-19.

In a magnificent 2,3yo career the Chris Waller trained The Autumn Sun won eight races up to 2000m and $3.4m in stakes, having also captured the Randwick Guineas, the and Rosehill Guineas, the JJ Atkins Stakes at two, all being at Group 1 level.

Considered the heir to his deceased influential sire Redoute’s Choice, The Autumn Sun is from the unraced Galileo mare Azmiyna and was a $700,000 purchase by Hermitage Thoroughbreds-Chris Waller Racing at the 2017 Australian Easter Yearling Sale, form Arrowfield Stud.

The 2017 Golden Rose winner Trapize Artist also retires this year to Widden Stud as Champion Australian 3YO Colt of 2017-18, having won all seven races from 1200 to 1400m and $5.5m in stakes.

Trained by Gerald Ryan at Rosehill Gardens and ridden by Tye Angland in the Golden Rose, Trapeze Artist also won the TJ Smith Stakes, All Aged Stakes, Canterbury Stakes and Expressway Stakes all a weight-for-age, and was second in the $13m The Everest.

Sired by the noted sire of sprinters and three-times champion sire Snitzel, Trapeze Artist ran a race record of 1:08.29sec for 1200m in winning the TJ Smith Stakes, and broke the track records in the All Aged Stakes and Canterbury Stakes.

Also at Widden Stud is Zoustar, who when ridden by Jim Cassidy and trained by Chris Waller defeated the future Horse of The Year Dissident in the 2013 Golden Rose Stakes, before going onto win another ‘breed shaper’ in the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington.

Sired by the ill-fated champion first season sire Northern Meteor, Zoustar was Champion First and Second Season Sire and has his triple Group 1 winning mare Sunlight as a slot holder for the $14m The Everest at Royal Randwick.
Again the might of Godolphin has made the Golden Rose Stakes no exception. The 2016 winner Astern, trained by John O’Shea, is standing at Darley Kelvinside in the Hunter Valley and now has his first foals.

Sired by the internationally successful Medaglia d’Oro, the sire of US Horse of The Year Rachel Alexander, Astern shuttles to Jonabell Farm in Kentucky and is a half-brother the top-line triple Group 1 sprinter-miler Alizee.

Also at Darley Kelvinside is the 2013 Golden Crown winner Exosphere, by Lonhro, who has his first yearlings this year in Australia and Europe, while Hallowed Crown, the previous year’s winner by Street Sense, already has winners internationally.

Command’s 2012 Rose winner Epaulette is also at Kelvinside and has sired the Champion South African 2YO Colt in Soqrat, with the 2009 winner Denman, a son of Lonhro, has the Hong Kong speedster Hot King Prawn, and is now at Twin Hills Stud, Cootamundra.

What now for Godolphin and trainer James Cummings with Bivouac the early market $3 favourite for the De Borelli Wines sponsored Gr1 Golden Rose Stakes at Rosehill Gardens, having been a convincing two length winner of the Gr2 Run To The Rose of 1200m from Yes Yes Yes and Exceedance.

The Hawkes Racing trained Exceedance is $3.90 second favourite and again will be ridden by Tommy Berry, with the Chris Waller pair of Yes Yes Yes at $4.80 and Kubrick $9, with the Smart Missile gelding Yao Dash at $8.

It is certainly that Bivoauc will retire to Darley Kelvinside, and shuttle to Europe where his sire Exceed and Excel is highly popular. A winner of the Vain Stakes and Kindergarten Stakes, Bivouac is from the winning More Than Ready mare Dazzler, and is the family Golden Slipper winner and sire Sepoy.

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