breednet.com.au

Pedigree with extra Grunt

Darryl Sherer - Monday February 19

At first glance the pedigree of Saturday's Group III C S Hayes Stakes winner Grunt is notable for the duplication of stallion Pompeii Court however, there is more to it than that.

Bred by Brent and Cherry Taylor at their Trelawney Stud, Grunt is inbred 3x3 to Pompei Court (Tell) through his sire O'Reilly (Last Tycoon), whose dam Courtza is by Pompeii Court out of Hunza (Pakistan II).

Pompeii Court won the Grade II Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in 1982 and set a track record for one mile at Santa Anita at 1:33.60 in 13 wins from 34 starts.

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Twice champion sire of two-year-olds in New Zealand, he sired six Group I winners, notably Courtza and Our Pompeii, and 31 stakes winners in total.


Grunt's dam Ruqqaya is by Van Nistelrooy and a half-sister to five-time Group I winner and now promising sire Ocean Park.

A little further back is where it gets interesting as Grunt's third dam Eastern Princess is by Pompeii Court and a granddaughter of Hunza, making Grunt inbred 2 x 3 to three-quarter sisters Courtza and Eastern Princess with Hunza his own fifth dam.

Bred by Mr P J B Smith, Hunza was a brilliant two-year-old in Melbourne in the early seventies, winning twice at Caulfield before Christmas then a further three at two culminating in victory in the Group II Bloodhorse Breeders' Plate over 1400m at Flemington before finishing runner-up in the Group III Reisling Slipper Trial Stakes at Rosehill.

Hunza was rated the joint top filly with Just Topic on the 1972-73 Australian 2YO Free Handicap and later New Zealand Broodmare of the Year in 1989.

As good a runner as she was for Nelson Bunker Hunt, Hunza excelled in her second career as a broodmare at his then Waikato Stud.

She left five stakes winners, two of them at Group I level in Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper Stakes winner Courtza and the dual Adelaide Cup and South Australian Derby winner Our Pompeii, both by Pompeii Court.

Courtza's first foal Lost Valley was by Waikato Stud-stallion Decies and won the Group III Canterbury Cup when trained by Theo Green while Fixed Flush (Brigand) won the Group III Doomben Stakes and Hunza Court (Pompeii Court) a three-time Listed race winner at Flemington.

Grunt is the first stakes winner to be inbred to Hunza along with the Group III The Vanity runner-up Critical Angel, also by O'Reilly.

Arion statistics credit 34 named foals carrying duplications of Hunza for 18 runners and 12 winners, 11 of them by O'Reilly with the other by O'Reilly's Group I winning son Alamosa.

Hunza, Pompeii Court and Courtza were all buried at Waikato Stud, now owned by Mark Chittick, as was Grunt's sire O'Reilly, who died from a suspected ruptured aorta in 2014.

 
 
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