A winner of three of his first four starts before stepping up to black type racing with a third in the Listed Canberra Guineas (1400m) followed by fourth two weeks back in the Group 3 ATC Carbine Club Stakes (1600m), the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Castelvecchio colt Shangri La Spring appreciated the step up to 2000m, leading throughout under Tim Clark to take out the Group 3 ATC Frank Packer Plate at Randwick.
Sent out at double figure odds with the multiple Group 1 placed Swift Falcon jumping away the race favourite, Shangri La Spring’s victory continued the solid carnival run of his Arrowfield Stud based sire Castelvecchio, who incidentally won his first elite level victory on this day back in 2019 when defeating Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) in the Gr1 ATC Champagne Stakes (1600m).
Shangri La Spring wins the G3 Frank Packer Plate - image Bradley Photography
Holding off the late charge of Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald’s Yes Yes Yes gelding Final Agreement who was coming off finishing second in the ATC Deby last start, Shangri La Spring will now head north to the Queensland Winter Carnival where there are a host of options available.
Initially being aimed towards the lucrative ATC Derby, things didn’t work out and plans needed to change.
"I wanted to try to get him here for the ATC Derby. We gave him a short turnaround off the back of his winter campaign and thought we'd give him that option," Bott said.
"It has just taken a bit longer to get him fit than we wanted so we thought the Carbine (Club Stakes) and Frank Packer would be a better program and then we could aim up (to the Queensland Derby) if we ticked those boxes."
A $325,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Arrowfield Stud draft for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Racing/Kestrel Thoroughbreds, Shangri La Spring is the first stakes winner, and fourth stakes performer for the stakes-winning Redoute’s Choice mare Opportunity.
Opportunity was retired from stud duties after her next foal, with Shangri La Spring’s full brother named Another Cashie in the Matthew Dunn stable.
Building a solid arsenal for the Spring carnival headed by his Chris Waller trained daughter Aeliana who dominated her rivals with a six-length romp in the Group 1 ATC Derby (2400m) two weeks back, Castelvecchio currently sits in second position on the Australian Second Season Sire table behind Darley’s Too Darn Hot.
