Saturday’s Group III Ethereal Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield is sponsored by New Zealand Bloodstock and we have selected fillies from two of New Zealand’s very best families to supply the exacta.
The Mick Price-trained Hiyaam (High Chaparral) showed her class when second to Bring Me Roses in the Group II Edward Manifold Stakes at what was just her third trip to the races.
One of 178 mares to visit High Chaparral (IRE) in what proved to be his penultimate season at Coolmore, the unraced Mazarine is a daughter of Zabeel. She is the first foal of the Group I winner Marquise, a daughter of the great Eight Carat (GB), who 12 months later produced a sister to Hiyaam named Shower Of Roses.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse, Shower Of Roses won the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Stakes, before starting favourite when second to stablemate Sunday Joy in the AJC Australian Oaks.
While Sunday Joy found fame as the dam of 8-time Group I winner More Joyous, Shower Of Roses life was cut short when put down at Gooree Stud after undergoing surgery due to a bout of colic, just days after producing her first foal, a colt by Encosta de Lago.
Besides Shower Of Roses, Mazzarine is also a sister to the stakes-placed Minqar Qaim and a three-quarter sister to Octagonal, Don Eduardo, Mouawad and Peruzzi.
Mazzarine has not lived up to her bloodlines to date and she has been beaten for the honour of producing a stakes winner by one of her daughters Game Duchess (Montjeu) whose daughter Exquisite Jewel is a Group III winner and was fourth in the Group I NZ Oaks.
Our tip for the exacta is the Darren Weir-trained Teordora, a daughter of Darley Stud’s top-class Teofilo (IRE), to who puts her unbeaten record on the line in the Ethereal Stakes.
A winner at Ararat and Bendigo, Teodora is a homebred for Desharon Bloodstock and Stableboard Bloodstock, who secured the fillies dam through So Devine through John Foote Bloodstock Pty Ltd $130,000 at the 2012 NZB National Broodmare Sale.
It looks money well spent as So Devine’s first two foals are winners while her Camelot yearling filly made $340,000 to the bid of Kenji Yoshida at this year’s Easter Yearling Sale.
A daughter of High Chaparral (IRE), So Devine had her share of ability. She was a winner over 1600 metres and was twice stakes-placed including the Group III Manawatu Classic.
But she was not in the class of her brother Monaco Consul, the winner of the Group 1 Victoria Derby and Group 1 AJC Spring Champion Stakes.
Their dam Agante (Star Way) is a sister to stakes winner Con Air and a half-sister to Widden Stud’s dual Group 1 winner Military Plume (Sir Tristram).
The first four dams of So Devine are by Star Way (GB), In The Purple (FR), Le Filou (FR) and Faux Tirage (GB), it doesn’t get more New Zealand than that.
