An important day for two Waterhouse/Bott runners on Saturday for the Magic Millions 2yo Classic aspirants Storm Boy and Straight Charge.
The hugely impressive Justify (USA) colt Storm Boy is all but assured a start in the $3,000,000 feature at the Gold Coast following his win at Rosehill on December 2.
Storm Boy is at unbackable odds in the $300,000 Group III Magic Millions B.J. Mclachlan Stakes (1200m) at Eagle Farm.
His contemptuous dismissal of Traffic Warden at Rosehill took on further significance when Traffic Warden opened his winning account at his next start at Caulfield.
Straight Charge has not started since his fighting second to stablemate Espionage in the Group III Breeders' Plate at Randwick.
The son of Written By has made three starts in barrier trials and won them all.
A two-time veteran of the sales ring, Straight Charge was a $160,000 pinhook for Paul Moroney Bloodstock / Pegasus Bloodstock from the Twin Hills Stud draft at the 2022 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale.
Re-offered by Lime Country Thoroughbreds to the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, he made $270,000 to the bid of Yu Long Investments.
Bred by Scott and Kathy Robertson, Straight Charge is the second foal of the I Am Invincible mare Matryoshka.
An $80,000 purchase for Ontrack Racing Syndicates/Brett Bowman at the 2016 Magic Millions, Matryoshka made just two starts for a fourth at the Gold Coast and a third at Dubbo.
Written By looked a logical choice for Matryoshka as she is a half-sister to Written Tycoon's Group II winning speedball, Winning Rupert, and his high-class sister Tycoon Evie, winner of the Group III BRC Pam O'Neill Stakes.
Matryoshka's dam Winaura was a talented mare who won five and placed in her 27 starts.
At her debut, the daughter of Show a Heart had the misfortune of running into a topliner in Gold Edition at Eagle Farm. At her following start, Winaura won at Doomben, encouraging connections to take a shot at the Group III Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington. She beat just one of the ten runners home behind Naddem and never quite lived up to her early promise.
Winaura did, however, bring life to a family that had been dormant for generations.
You must go back eight generations before finding the next mare to produce a stakes-winner. That was Gallantry (GB), born in 1924, and left the New Zealand Cup winner Fersen and the VRC St Leger Stakes winner Oratory.
After slipping in 2021, Matryoshka foaled a brother to Straight Charge at Widden Stud on September 8.
