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Lunar Fox produces shock win in Australian Guineas
Woodside Park Stud’s Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) sired his fifth Group 1 winner and first Group 1 winning colt when Lunar Fox (3 c ex Grant's Moon by Malibu Moon) scored an upset victory in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington on Saturday.
Sent off at odds of $301, the Paul Preusker-trained three-year-old settled midfield one out with a trail. He cornered five and six wide in the clear and was one of the first off the bridle but he kept closing in the straight to pick up the frontrunner Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) inside the final 50 metres and then hold off the fast finishing Cherry Tortoni (Night Of Thunder) by half a length. Tagaloa was another neck away in third.
Cherry Tortoni and Tagaloa both ran good races in defeat from extreme opposition positions in the run, with the former being taken back from his wide draw to settle a detached last over 15 lengths from the leader who ran the field along at a good speed. Cherry Tortoni’s late finishing burst on the outside of the field, reminiscent of his champion relation Tie The Knot (Nassipour), earmarked him for all the major three-year-old Autumn staying races.
All the honours on the day have to go to Lunar Fox who had landed the VRC Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) as a two-year-old, beating subsequent dual Group 1 Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) into third that day, and he was last seen running 12th of 14 runners in the CS Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) on February 13.
Holly McKechnie, who was representing Preusker, said the application of first-time blinkers helped the colt turnaround his form.
"It's a bit surreal at this stage,” she said. “I can't believe it. He's always had a lot of ability, this horse. Obviously last start he ran below par and we couldn't really find any issue. We've done the old trick with the blinkers and it seems to have done the job.
"Last time was just out of character. He's always trying this horse. Getting to the outside and the additions of blinkers certainly helped him."
The colt proved a hard sell at the sales, having been passed in as weanling at the Inglis Great Southern Sale and then again at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, before eventually being bought for $40,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Gold Yearling Sale in 2019 from the Kelly Thoroughbreds draft.
Travis Kelly of Kelly Thoroughbreds told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he was shocked the colt was able to turn his form around in the Group 1.
“It is a huge thrill to breed our first Group 1 as we are only a little farm and only have about ten broodmares,” said Kelly. “We tried to sell him at the weanling sales and then at Melbourne Premier, but he was passed in at both sales so had to send him to the VOBIS Gold Sale.
“I was shocked he won, but if you look back to the Sires’ Produce Stakes form, I knew that if he could re-capture that he could turn it around. I don’t think we saw the best of him in the spring and he has obviously thrived when he’s got out to a mile. I am absolutely thrilled for the owners and the trainer - it is just fantastic.
“We tried to breed racehorses and I think we have achieved that here today. He was a really mover and a really lovely athletic type. He was a really lovely colt as a young horse and we didn’t overly pump him.”
Kelly said he was a good-looking colt and was underrated type at the sales.
“I think he came at a time when Foxwedge wasn’t being that well received in the sales’ rings. He was definitely underrated as a type at the sales, but it was hard to get people to look at him.
“He was a beautiful type of horse as a youngster, with good conformation, balanced and he walked really well.”
The colt is out of American Listed winner Grant’s Moon (Malibu Moon), who was purchased by Kelly Thoroughbreds for $20,000 at the 2017 Inglis Great Southern Weanling and Bloodstock Sale. She had been bought ten years prior by late Steve Brem for US$200,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
The colt is from the wider family of Grade 2 winner Boston Common (Boston Harbor) and Grade 3 winners Blacksberg (Seattle Slew) and Storm Surge (Storm Cat), while this also the family of multiple top-level scorer Singspiel (In The Wings) and Rahy (Blushing Groom).
In 2018 Grant's Moon produced a filly by Darley’s first-crop sire Holler (Commands), while in 2019 she produced a filly by another Darley sire - Frosted (Tapit).
Lunar Fox becomes the first male Group 1 winner for Woodside Park Stud-based sire Foxwedge, joining Volpe Veloce, Foxplay, Run Fox Run and Urban Fox and he has four lots catalogued at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, which gets underway on Sunday.
