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Son of Coolmore Stud-based Vancouver impresses at Yarra Valley
Well-related Alternate (3 f Vancouver - Better Alternative by Flying Spur) got her career off to the best possible start as she made a winning debut over 1200 metres at Yarra Valley on Tuesday.
Trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, the daughter of Coolmore Stud-based sire Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro) stayed on strongly to beat Sweet As Scandi (Magnus) by half a length, while Gunna Gunna (Toronado) was a further two and a quarter lengths away in third.
Owned by the China Horse Club, who purchased the filly from Coolmore Stud for $625,000 at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale in 2018, the three-year-old is out of dual-winning Flying Spur (Danehill) mare Better Alternative.
The mare’s five other winners include multiple Group 1 winner and now Brighthill Farm-based sire Preferment (Zabeel) and Group 3-winning filly Rezoned (Zabeel).
Better Alternative is herself a half-sister to Group 2 winner Dances On Waves (Anabaa), while this is also the same family as Group 1 winner Ancient Song (Canny Lad) - the dam of Listed scorer Tampiko (Lonhro).
Purchased by YuLong Investments for $750,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, Better Alternative produced a colt by Savabeel (Zabeel) in 2019, while this season she produced a filly by YuLong’s resident stallion Grunt (O’Reilly).
Vancouver has 11 lots catalogued at next month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, while he has four lots entered for the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, which gets underway on 7 February.
