Darby Racing celebrated another feature race win with their savvy $160,000 Inglis Digital purchase Robusto in the Listed ATC Winter Challenge at Rosehill on Saturday and in his post-race interview Bjorn Baker revealed they had purchased two new tried horses last week, so who are they?
“He’s (Robusto) been a revelation and is another good horse Darby Racing have purchased and they find them at all levels,” Bjorn Baker said.
“They bought another two horses during the week and I’m lucky enough to get both of those.”
The Inglis Digital Sale that concluded last Wednesday was packed with quality and included a 26 strong draft from Godolphin, so naturally we had to go and investigate the two new recruits that will soon sport the Darby colours.
Darby Racing signed for a pair of three year-old geldings in Mayfair and Snack Bar.
Mayfair was a $625,000 Magic Millions yearling purchase for China Horse Club/Newgate/Go/Trilogy that enjoyed considerable success for the Waterhouse Bott stable rising to prominence at this time last year.
He was placed in the Group III ATC San Domenico Stakes and Group III ATC Ming Dynasty Quality behind Storm Boy and Lady Shenandoah before finishing third in the Group I ATC Golden Rose to Broadsiding.
His autumn form was not up to that standard and being owned by a stallion syndicate, he was duly gelded and onsold leaving plenty of untapped potential for his new owners with Darby paying $200,000 to secure the son of Fastnet Rock.
Snack Bar is a Godolphin homebred that won two of his first four starts in Victoria and then was competitive in spring stakes races in Sydney last year and was actually third to Lady Shenandoah and Mayfair in the Group III ATC Ming Dynasty.
He’s been very consistent of late in Saturday grade races with his overall record two wins and eight placings from 13 starts with over $300,000 in prizemoney.
Darby paid $155,000 for the dashing grey by Frosted (USA) from winning Lonhro mare Estaminet, a grand-daughter of New Zealand Horse of the Year Tycoon Lil.
Punters will be looking forward to seeing what Bjorn Baker can do with this talented pair and if there are ownership shares still available am tipping they won’t be for long!
