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Acrobat scores perfect ten in Inglis Nursery victory
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace team have carved themselves a reputation as being a stable brimming with juvenile talent and they looked to have unearthed yet another two-year-old star on Saturday as Acrobat (2 c ex Hips Don't Lie by Stravinsky) landed the lucrative Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) at Randwick and in so doing handed the evergreen Coolmore Stud-based sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill) with his 165th stakes winner.
Bred and raced by Coolmore Stud, the colt showed a formidable turn of foot to beat Ashema (I Am Invincible) by two and a quarter lengths, while Mission Value (Capitalist) was a further two and a half lengths away in third.
The colt clocked a time of 56.02 seconds, which saw Extreme Choice’s (Not A Single Doubt) race record from 2015 tumble, while the time was only 0.71 seconds outside Redzel’s (Snitzel) track record for the Randwick 1000 metre course.
The colt now looks likely to be aimed at the Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) and Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
“With a colt like that, you have to dream about Golden Slippers and the Inglis Millennium seems a huge and logical option along the way because prize-money counts for a lot,’’ part-owner James Bester said.
“The Millennium has already proved itself a top-class race so the Millennium en route to the Slipper would be the obvious and logical target now.
“For such a beautiful looking animal that is so well bred, today is a big result. To win a stakes race first start with a pedigree and physique that this colt has, a lot of good horses have won this race in Extreme Choice, She Will Reign, Mossfun, Wild Ruler, we’re very excited to be in that bracket now and hopefully we’re the next big thing.’’
The colt was retained by Coolmore after he failed to make his $1,000,000 reserve at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year and he is out of Group 2-winning Stravinsky (Nureyev) mare Hips Don’t Lie, making him a brother to Group 3 scorer Ennis Hill as well as Listed winner Lake Geneva, while his other stakes-placed brother added a fourth win to his record when he took out the Prince Of Penzance (1200m) at Flemington later on in the afternoon.
Hips Don’t Lie herself is a half-sister to stakes-placed O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Acquired - the dam of Group 2 winner Splintex (Snitzel) and Listed scorer Invictus Salute (Exceed And Excel), as well as the dam of Group 3 winner No More Tears (Darci Brahma).
Coolmore will offer the mare’s filly by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) at next year’s Inglis Easter Australian Yearling Sale, while Hips Don’t Lie has most recently been covered by the operation’s Triple Crown-winning shuttler Justify (Scat Daddy).
Fastnet Rock has 18 lots catalogued at next year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
