Oakland Park's veteran WA sire Sessions is rarely without a good horse to represent him, and the son of Lonhro now has his sixth stakes winner after exciting 3YO galloper Repossession spanked the older horses to win the Listed Beaufine Stakes at Pinjarra Park.
Unbeaten this prep and chasing a hat trick of 1000m victories, Repossession was sent to post a hot favourite - with punters feeling confident the Gangemi- trained sprinter would rise to the challenge of open stakes company despite a setback last week with a hoof abscess.
Repossession didn't disappoint, rocketing up the straight at Pinjarra to overhaul race leaders Baby Paris (Playing God) and 3YO filly Sinful Living (Safeguard) who stuck on gamely at a price, to score a determined win over the quality 4YO mare Toropa (Toronado) who also unleashed a big finish and briefly looked the winner.
Second favorite Final Siren (I'm All The Talk) was resuming after placing in the Listed Pinjarra Classic and Bunbury Stakes in March and ran well to finish fourth.
But Brad Parnham and Repossession had the answers to any challenge and with a superior turn of foot, the gelding was over half a length in front at the line.
The first three home are all lightly raced, progressive types we can expect to see contesting Spring features, and the exciting Repossession now has five wins from only seven starts with $435,610 in the bank!
His only unplaced runs came in the Placid Ark Stakes and Max Symmonds Stakes last year, in which he was fourth both times.
The handsome gelding was a modest purchase for Gangemi Racing and Slade Bloodstock at the 2023 MM Perth Yearling at $62,500 from the Bellbridge Park draft.
Repossession is the third Beaufine Stakes winner for the Gangemi stable - it's been ten years since their mighty sprinter Rock Magic won in 2015 followed by Durendal in 2018.
Chris Gangemi won't be drawn into any comparisons, but he clearly has a very high opinion of Repossession.
“He’s a good horse, this one - we haven't had one this good for a long time” he said after the race.
“He's the smartest young horse we've had, to be honest.”
Repossession is the seventh foal from his dam, the Danetime mare Can Time.
He is her only stakes winner but he is half to four other winners and a full brother to her only other progeny by Sessions, the six times winning sprinter Ohbeeh.
Now retired from breeding, Can Time's eighth and last foal is a 2023 Manhattan Rain filly.
Can Time was a good performer on the track with 4 wins from 1400 to 2000m and as a daughter of the excellent sire Danetime she was always going to have the potential to produce a good one.
Her family is an interesting one containing names we don't often see in the breeding of stakes winners these days and it's great to see some good old West Aussie blood still going strong!
Can Time's dam was the unraced Steel Can, by the much valued broodmare sire Steel Glow - a son of the champion Pago Pago from the family of Showdown and Zeditave.
Can Time was her only winner, but Steel Can was a half sister to one of WA's star turf performers of his time, the incredible Willoughby.
Willoughby, by the top sire Fimiston, was a formidable sprinter miler and notched up 24 wins including the G1 Railway Stakes among his many Western Australian stakes wins. He was twice runner up in the Winterbottom Stakes.
Willoughby performed with equal distinction in Melbourne with wins in the G2 Blamey Stakes and Listed Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington, running second in the G2 Feehan, Memsie, and Carlyon Cup.
Willoughby’s name is forever linked with the Beaufine Stakes - he is one of only two horses to have won the race aged eight years, having saluted in 1999 when ridden by Hall Of Fame jockey Paul Harvey.
In doing so he set the weight carrying record for the Beaufine which still stands - lumping 59.5kg over the 1000m.
What a horse!
Willoughby and his half sister, Repossession's grand dam Steel Can were foaled by the four times winning Cantanette - a daughter of the stallion Cantanof ( 10 wins, WATC Plate) - whose sole stakes winner was the good sprinter Micron a dual winner of the Listed Belmont Newmarket.
Cantanof was a son of the 1952 Railway Stakes winner Aptofine by Sansofine while Cancanette's grand dam Bride Elect was a daughter of that excellent sire giving her a 3m x 3f inbreeding to him.
Also among Sansofine's four Railway Stakes winners was the 1943 winner Beaufine so it's fitting that Repossessions should win the race named for that galloper!
Repossession's fourth dam Blackette was an unraced daughter of the imported aristocratic black stallion Wateringbury, a son of the influential Epsom Derby winner Blue Peter and half brother to Double Bore who also became a successful sire in Australia.
Wateringbury got ten stakes winners but his name is forever immortalized as sire of one of the Australian turf's legendary gallopers, Aquanita!
Aquanita was invincible in Perth and after his 1959 Railway Stakes win at three he went east to become one of the nation's premier racehorses of the early 1960s.
Jet black like his sire, this great horse collected the Doomben 10,000, two George Adams, the Underwood and Turnbull Stakes, the Cox Plate and Mackinnon Stakes, plus the VRC Duke of Edinburgh Stakes.
He was triumphant in the VATC Futurity Stakes, carrying a weight of 10 stone 7 pounds (66.7 kg) and unbelievably gallant in the 1963 Melbourne Cup when third to the great stayer Even Stevens.
WA Racing Hall Of Fame 2010 inductee Aquanita retired to stud in WA and was a good sire from the limited opportunities he received due to the inarguable humbleness of his female line.
Clearly his sire Wateringbury had some seriously power packed genes!
Repossession's tail female line is Colonial family 10 which traces to the imported mare Betty, or Old Betty. It's been a successful and prolific tribe through the generations and it is the female line of the very successful WA family to which belong the G1 Australasian Oaks winner La Volta and her WATC Gimcrack winning sister Terevega.
The family can throw a real topliner and they are big-hearted, tough as nails racehorses..
Repossession is bred 4f x 3m to Danehill. His damsire Danetime was a top sire with 30 stakes winners and an immense - sadly short lived - success in WA. As a stallion carrying the prepotent Roberto son Lear Fan through his dam ( as do the likes of Kitten's Joy, Azamour and Johar) he had the goods to become a notable broodmare sire.
Danetime's French G1 winning son Myboycharlie was also a success in Australia most memorably as sire of the champion filly and G1 Caulfield Cup winnerJameeka while sons Vital Equine, Famous Roman and So Secret went to stud in WA.
Will Repossession become another bigtime performer for his great West Aussie family?
The signs are looking good!
Lonhro’s G1 winning son Sessions is still going strong at Oakland Park and will stand at a fee of $9,900 in 2025.
