Kind of nice to see an impressive Ole Kirk debut winner carrying the colours of Vinery Stud, which is home to this most exciting young sire.
The Robbie Griffiths trained gelding Legacy Bound gave nothing else a chance in the 1200m maiden at Ballarat on Wednesday, opening up to win byu nearly four lengths for Jye McNeil.
Legacy Bound is a homebred for Vinery Stud that was offered to Robbie Griffiths to train after he earlier purchased an Ole Kirk yearling at the sales and the astute trainer has quickly become a fan of his stock.
“We've been a supporter of Ole Kirk and he's doing such a great job at stud already. We've got three of them in the stable and they all go well,” said stable representative Corey Smith.
“We had a good opinion of him coming here today although he's very green, but he actually put things together today nicely.
“He did show that greenness in the preliminary parts of the day in the tie-ups and the mounting yard, where he was a little bit hot and obviously we had two strappers on him, but he's a two-year-old first day at the races and first day away from home.
“Once he got on the track he seemed to settle and once the gates opened, Jye put him in a great spot and he did the rest.
“We thought we'd take today as a run to educate him, but he probably superseded our expectations in terms of him focusing.
“We have a huge opinion of his ability and Robbie's been a fan of all three of our Ole Kirk’s in training, so it was nice to see the first one step out and win in the Vinery colours, so happy days.”
Legacy Bound is the second winner from three foals to race from Sanaya, a winning More Than Ready (USA) daughter of Group II winner Astrodame.
Sanaya produced a filly by Ole Kirk last spring and then was covered by Exceedance.
Legacy Bound is the eighth first crop winner for Ole Kirk, who is the leading first crop sire by winners and earnings.