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Elysium provides Haunui shuttler with his fifth winner

The Noel Meade-trained Elysium (2 f ex Sonning Rose by Hawk Wing) won over five and a half furlongs at Navan on Tuesday and in doing so provided Haunui Farm shuttler Belardo (Lope De Vega) with his fifth winner from his first European-bred crop. 

Having her second start having finished unplaced on debut at Naas earlier this month, Elysium was a little slowly away under jockey Colin Keane and was settled towards the rear of the field before making progress once approaching the two-furlong marker. She then picked up brilliantly in the closing stages and beat Giselles Thunder (Night Of Thunder) by a length and three quarters with the same distance back to favourite Dense Star (Starspangledbanner) in third. 

Bought by her trainer for €15,000 at the Goffs Ireland Autumn Yearling and Mixed Sale, Elysium is out of the Listed placed mare Sonning Rose (Hawk Wing), who ran second in the Chesham Stakes (Listed, 7f) at Royal Ascot in 2010. She has now produced three winners from four foals to race and is a half-sister to the stakes placed trio Universo Star (Excellent Art), Vienna's Boy (Victory Note) and New Jersey (Statue Of Liberty). 

Belardo's other winners are Golden Melody, Isabelle Giles, Lullaby Moon and Got Lucky. Winner of the Dewhurst Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) as a juvenile he raced on and won the Lockinge Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at four. He is the only son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) standing at stud in Australasia and will stand for a fee of NZ$10,000 (plus GST) this season.