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Victoria's Blue Gum Farm had a day to remember at Moonee Valley on Saturday, producing three stakes winners including two homebreds for stud owners Phil and Patti Campbell.
Blue Gum Farm raised and sold the $300,000 Inglis Banner winner Ideas Man while the Campbells bred and race the G2 Fillies Classic dead heater La Falaise and Sartorial Splendor, winner of the G3 1300 Australia Stakes.
"It has been an absolute banner day for the farm," said Phil Campbell.
"We won the Derby and Maribyrnong Plate on the same day in 1986 but that aside, I can't remember a day like this.
"To have three stakes winners on one the biggest days of racing in Australia is one to cherish. We've had a fabulous time watching it all unfold.''
Key to the big day for Blue Gum Farm was the young Darley stallion Brazen Beau, sire of Ideas Man and Sartorial Splendour.
Standing at Darley's Northwood Park in Victoria, Brazen Beau no has five stakes winners among his 21 winners in his first two crops to race. The son of I Am Invincible is also the sire of Australian stakes winners Colada and Accession and Avenger's Queen, a Listed winner in Italy.
IDEAS MAN (Brazen Beau x Innovation Girl by Rubiton): The noted 2YO trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace produced the first starter Ideas Man for an impressive win in the Inglis Banner.
The sale restricted race made the Brazen Beau youngster an early favourite for the $2 million Inglis Millennium in Sydney in February.
Ideas Man was purchased by Maher and Eustace at the 2019 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale for $575,000, having big respect for the family after also training an earlier foal Chloe In Paris from their ill-fated dam Innovation Girl.
Innovation Girl won 10 races including the G2 Ascot Vale Stakes (now the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes), three G3 races and three Listed races. She has seven winners from eight foals to race including Chloe In Paris (Exceed And Excel) was a Listed winner and dam of the Group performer The Original (Dehere).
The sorry aspect was the death this month of Innovation Girl, a big loss for her owner Des Pope who bred Ideas Man and remains in his ownership.
"Unfortunately the mare passed away last week at Blue Gum Farm and Ideas Man is the last one out of her," Maher said.
"He's got a great pedigree, it's a stallion's pedigree. He might have seemed expensive at the time but he seems cheap now.''
Pope, who raced Innovation Girl, knew he had a special colt on his hands with Ideas Man.
"He just had something about him,'' Pope said. "He's developed perfectly and got to race day in outstanding shape.''
LA FALAISE (Canford Cliffs x Exceedingly French by Exceed and Excel) had to share the prize in the G2 Fillies Classic with the NZ-bred filly FASCINO (Charm Spirit x Lady Kipling by Savabeel).
The Blue Gum Farm-bred La Falaise is trained by Henry Dwyer for Forest Lodge Racing while Ciaron Maher and David Eustace prepare Fascino.
La Falaise was a cheap $5000 VOBIS Gold Yearling Sale buy for Forest Lodge Racing from the Blue Gum Farm draft and is the 14th stakes winer by her former shuttle sire Canfiord Cliffs.
Canford Cliffs has been represented by 267 winners from 474 runners including the G2 winner Cliff's Edge.
The winner of two of her six starts, La Falaise is the second winner from the Listed winner Exceedingly French, a half-sister to the stakes-placed Rowland (Lonhro). Her dam is a three-quarter sister to the multiple European G1 winner Old Vic (Sadler's Wells).
Exceedingly French produced a filly by Street Boss in 2019 and a filly by Manhattan Rain last year.
Fascino was purchased by Maher and Eustace at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale at Karaka for $NZ400,000 from her breeders Windsor Park Stud.
She is a daughter of the multiple G2 winner and four-time G1 placegetter Lady Kipling and has now won two of her seven starts.
Lady Kipling won 11 races and is the dam of two winners from two foals to race.
Fascino's shuttle sire Charm Spirit is the sire of 84 winners worldwide from 175 runners with Fascino his fourth stakes winner and second at G2 level.
Lady Kipling has a colt by Tavistock and a filly by Turn Me Loose. She returned to Charm Spirit in 2019.
SARTORIAL SPLENDOR (Brazen Beau x Personal Ensign by Rubiton) completd the stakes double for Blue Gum Farm and her sire in the G3 1300 Australia Stakes.
Sartorial Splendor was purchased for $130,000 Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale by trainer John Sadler in 2018 from the Blue Gum Farm draft.
The colt's dam Personal Ensign was a Listed winner of three races and has been a prolific producer of seven winners from eight foals to race.
They include the G2 Blue Diamond Prelude and G3 Blue Diamond Preview winner Fontiton (Turffontein) who bought by Sadler out from Blue Gum Farm at the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale for $130,000.
Personal Ensign produced a filly by Manhattan Rain in 2018 and returned to that sire this season.
