Back to back Saturday staying feature winners Our Peaky Blinders and Sin to Win are both ex kiwis by the relatively unknown shuttle stallion Sir Percy (GB), winner of the 2006 Epsom Derby.
Mark Pilkington Management principal Mark Pilkington is not claiming to be the
Captain Cook of discovering this emerging staying influence, but he did have
the foresight not to kick him to the kerb, when many others would have."A great friend of mine Jenny Grieve is an astute owner/breeder in NZ. We were in touch as a she followed the success of our ex kiwi He's our Rokki ( from maiden through to G1 winner) and she eventually talked me into buying Sin to Win from her after he showed a bit of promise for top kiwi trainer Tony Pike," Pilkington revealed.
"She mentioned at the time that she thought there was also another promising staying prospect by Sir Percy called Peaky Blinders. We ended up buying him too."
Sin to Win is trained by the Hayes Dabernig training partnership and has the
overall record of six wins and seven placings from 18 starts with over $330,000
in prizemoney, while Our Peaky Blinders has won five races and placed six times
from 14 starts earning over $200,000 in prizemoney and is prepared by Trent Busuttin
and Natalie Young."They have both been beautifully handled by their Aussie trainers who have got their ratings up so hopefully they can play bit-parts in this years Spring carnival en route to bigger things next year," said Pilkington, who manages the pair for separate ownership groups involved with his and Darren Thomas' Seymour Bloodstock entity.
"MPM sourced and/or Seymour raced gallopers have had a cracker season- 69 winners to date inc 2x G1's (the now Ballydoyle based Merchant Navy and rags to riches Caulfield Cup winner Boom Time), 2x G2's ( Luvaluva and Keen Array) and 2 x Listed winners ( Sovereign Nation and Sin to Win).
"We've recently sold a couple of our promising 3yo's Keen and Belfast to HK so we might have to keep an eye out for some more Sir Percy's to keep our numbers up next season," Pilkington added.
