Down to the business end of the season, and Saturday's Group III Sportsbet South Australian Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Morphettville provides Brutal with three chances of ending a successful first season and joining Pierata and Exceedance with two stakes-winners.
Half of the top ten sires of 2-year-olds are first-season stallions, emphasising that it is a talented crop.
Four Ace, Big Brute and Heinous contributed to Brutal's winning tally of nine from 23 runners.
Heinous strives to give Brutal his second stakes winner (image Racing Photos)
The Jason Warren-trained filly Heinous will be making her seventh start; only the consistent Strasbourg gelding Colmar has more.
Morphettvile has been a happy hunting ground for Jason Warren, with Benedetta winning the Group 1 Goodwood and Group III Irwin Stakes and Treasurway winning the Group III Breeders' Stakes.
Heinous has gradually improved throughout the season. After breaking her maiden at start five with a two-and-a-quarter length romp at Sandown-Hillside on May 25, the daughter of Brutal was a respectable fifth in the Listed Oxlade Stakes at Eagle Farm on June 15. The well-travelled filly will line up in a fourth state on Saturday, having appeared at Randwick at her second start in the hope of staking a claim for the Magic Millions 2yo Classic. The stable reported that she was feeling her shins and was given a 16-week break.
More worryingly, Heinous was a late scratching from the Listed Tattersall's Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 29 when found lame in the near foreleg, requiring a veterinary clearance before being allowed to race again.
Bred by Gooree Park Stud, Heinous was a $60,000 purchase for her trainer from the Newgate Farm draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and sports the black, orange checked sash and cap of Eales Racing.
Heinous a $60,000 Magic Millions yearling
She is the second winner from as many to race for the Exceed And Excel mare Nais Ko, a half-sister to Gooree Stud's Group 1 BRC BTC Cup winner Your Song (Fastnet Rock).
Nais Ko won little more than a Taree maiden in seven starts, though she has impeccable broodmare credentials.
Her dam Zembu was a talented performer for Lee Freedman, though she did not add to her score at Moonee Valley on debut. A $450,000 yearling buy for Gooree Stud, the daughter of Fuji Kiseki (JPN), is out of the blue-blooded Mr Prospector mare Wanice (USA).
A winner in France, Wanice (USA) is a half-sister to the magnificent Fantastic Light (Rahy), the champion Older Horse in Europe & USA Turf Male in 2001.
His 12 wins included elite-level scores in the Leopardstown Irish Champion Stakes, Breeders' Cup Turf, Hong Kong Cup, Belmont Man o' War Stakes, Royal Ascot Prince of Wales's Stakes and Curragh Tattersalls Gold Cup.
Wanice is a daughter of Jood, the final foal of the 1990 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Kamar (Key To The Mint) and had the unwanted distinction of being the only runner not to win a race.
The daughter of Nijinsky finished third in what may have been the hottest maiden of all time when sent out as favourite at Sandown, finishing third behind User Friendly and Shirley Valentine.
A champion on the racetrack in Canada, Kamar died two days after the birth of Jood.
She left a legacy through the 1989 Grade 1 Ashland Stakes and Hollywood Oaks heroine Gorgeous (Slew o' Gold), the1990 Kentucky Oaks winner Seaside Attraction (Seattle Slew), and the 1986 Group III Princess Margaret Stakes winner Hiaam (Alydar), amongst others.
Seaside Attraction is the dam of the dam of 1995 American champion 2-year-old filly Golden Attraction (Mr Prospector), a three-quarter sister to Wanice (USA).
Fantastic Light's sister Daanet Al Dunya followed her half-sister Wanice to Australia, where she left Group II ATC Pago Pago Stakes winner and Group 1 ATC Champagne Stakes third Tarquin (Hard Spun) and the talented Medaglia D'Oro (USA) mare Monogram the dam of Godolphin's Group II ATC Tulloch Stakes and Group II QTC Queensland Guineas winner Character (Teofilo).
China Horse Club/Newgate/Go Bloodstock/Trilogy had the final say at $400,000 for Nais Ko's Extreme Choice colt at the 2024 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
After missing in 2022, Nais Ko visited Extreme Choice last spring.
