Manhattan Rain used to call Victoria home, but these days he’s based at Geisel Park in WA and the blueblood son of Encosta de Lago has been in rare form over the past week with six winners and two were at Flemington including a new stakes-winner in New York Lustre.
Lightly raced six year-old mare New York Lustre got the ball rolling for her sire when taking out the Group III VRC Kirin Ichiban Sprint (1100m) on Derby Day for the Enver Jusufovic stable.
Retained to race by her breeder, New York Lustre won five races on the trot after breaking her maiden in July last year making a swift progression through the grades and had been consistent without winning in stakes grade over the spring.
She was rewarded for that consistency when scoring a deserved half length win for Carleen Heffel in the G3 sprint taking her overall record to six wins and four placings from 14 starts woth prizemoney just shy of $470,000.
New York Lustre became the 20th stakes-winner for Manhattan Rain and his second this season joining Jigsaw, who won the Group II MVRC McEwen Stakes on Cox Plate day.
Manhattan Rain was back in the winner’s list again at Flemington on Saturday when his exciting four year-old gelding Sabaj won the Benchmark 84 event over 1600m for the Price Kent partnership.
A well backed favourite with Mark Zahra on board, Sabaj bolted in to win by nearly two lengths and has wins and two seconds from just seven starts with prizemoney topping $250,000.
Placed in Listed and Group company last preparation Sabaj looms as a horse to follow.
A proven sire from the family of legendary sire Redoute’s Choice, Manhattan Rain a lot of quality for a small fee standing for just $5,500.
