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Personal produces impressive performance in VRC Oaks.

Before Thursday, Personal (3 f ex Personify by Galileo) had been unlucky not to notch valuable black-type onto her record, but the daughter of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) finally got her day in sun when she landed the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) at Flemington and in so doing became the 40th Group 1 winner and 162nd stakes winner for her sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill). 

Bred by Cressfield and raced by Coolmore, the Lindsay Park-trained three-year-old filly came into the race having finished second in the Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr 2, 1400m), Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) and she finally got her head in front when it matter, flying up the centre of the track to beat Salto Angel (Sacred Falls) by a length and a quarter. Dual Group 1 winner Montefilia (Kermadec) was the same distance away in third. 

With David Hayes now training in Hong Kong, the win handed Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes their first top-flight winner as a training partnership and Ben Hayes said it was a huge thrill to win the coveted Group 1. 

"It's a huge thrill and I know Dad back in Hong Kong will be very excited," Hayes said.

"We've been close with seconds in the Thousand Guineas and Caulfield Guineas, so this is a terrific result.

"It really means a lot to us at Lindsay Park and to train our first one (Group 1 together) is a big thrill.

"They (Coolmore) have always been great supporters of us and it's great to be able to do it in our first year. I am pinching myself still.

"She is an amazing horse. She was competitive over 1200 - she's a bit like Miss Finland."

The filly also finished third in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) as a juvenile and being out of the Listed-winning Galileo (Sadler's Wells) mare Personify means she becomes the 20th stakes winner and eighth Group 1 bred on the Fastnet Rock / Galileo cross, which fires at a stakes winners to runners rate of 23 per cent. 

The filly is the third Oaks winner by Fasnet Rock out of a daughter of Galileo, joining 2018 Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Unforgotten and Qualify, who landed the Oaks (Gr 1, 1m4f) at Epsom in 2015, while the other Group 1 winners bred on the cross are; Rivet, Zhukova, Age Of Fire, Intricately and Magicool. The filly also becomes the 186th stakes winner and 33rd top-flight scorer for Coolmore's Galileo as a broodmare sire. 

Kieran Moore Bloodstock purchased Personify on behalf Cressfield's Bruce Neill for $2,000,000 at the Inglis Sydney Broodmare Sale in 2008 from the Kulani Park draft who were acting on behalf Paul Makin's Paulyn Investments Pty Ltd Unreserved Reduction. 

Personal is one of six winners and first stakes winner out of Personify who has been unlucky not to produce a stakes winner prior to Personal's victory in the Oaks. The mare has had a few near misses, with her progeny headed by stakes-placed trio Trope (More Than Ready), Selectify (Redoute's Choice) and Laser Flash (Redoute's Choice) and Neill told Racing & Sports he was pleased to see the filly finally add black-type to her CV, having been knocking on the door throughout her career. 

"She has been a star all the way through," said Neill. "She was a star yearling and the mare has been one of our great mares. She has produced a lot of winning progeny and I guess you could call her unlucky to have not had a stakes winner. She has had three stakes-placegetters, but here we are now - we've now got a Group 1 winner." 

Neill said the potency of the Fastnet Rock / Galileo cross was one of the main reasons he elected to send the mare to the son of Danehill (Danzig). 

"The Galileo / Fastnet Rock cross is incredible and that is why I chose to go to that stallion," said Neill. "The mare was a faster Galileo, she won over 1400 metres."

Personify is not the most straightforward mare to foal and Neill said she was within hours of delivering a foal by Vinery Stud-based sire All Too Hard (Casino Prince), which would be her last.  

"I haven't bred to her for the last couple of years because she has to have caesarean births and actually she is in hospital as we speak about to give birth to a foal by All Too Hard," said Neill. 

"This will be her last foal, we won't be breeding to her again, there have just been too many complications."

Personal herself was purchased by Coolmore's Tom Magnier and BBA Ireland's Adrian Nicol for $640,000 at the 2019 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale from the Cressfield draft and Magnier was quick to heap praise on the efforts for Hayes, Dabering and Neill.

"Huge credit must go to Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes who presented Personal in perfect condition for the race today," said Magnier. 

"She's a gorgeous filly with an outstanding pedigree and she deserved a Group 1 win on her resume. A massive congratulations to her breeder Bruce Neill who has been a great supporter of Coolmore for a long time and deserves all the success he gets." 

It has been a difficult week for Coolmore, with the operation losing their Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f) winner Anthony Van Dyck (Galileo), who had to be put down after breaking down during the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) on Tuesday. 

"We are just overwhelmed," Magnier said. "With the week it has been to pick up the Kennedy Oaks is a dream and to do it with the Hayes team, with which we have a long association with - now with Ben and Tom at the helm - and are very close with, makes it very special.

"Fastnet Rock is a very special stallion and she's out of a Galileo mare. It's what dreams are made of. It's been a tough week but this is a very big high today."

Personify herself is out of 1994 Tristarc Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) winner Procrastinate (Jade Hunter) and she also produced dual South African Grade 1 winner Laisserfaire (Danehill) - the grandam of South African Grade 3 scorer Kampala Campari (Querari). 

Procrastinate also produced Group 3 winner Time For Julia (Redoute's Choice) and Listed-winning pair Time Thief (Redoute's Choice) and Foreplay (Danehill) and she is also the grandam of Group 2 winner Centennial Park (Thorn Park), Grade 2 winner Zodiac Ruler (Zoffany) and Group 3-winning duo Ballack (Montjeu) and Almighty Girl (Beneteau). 

Fastnet Rock is covering his 16th book of mares at Coolmore's Jerrys Plains base at a fee of $165,000 (inc GST).