Saturday’s $700,000 Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m) may be devoid of the sprinting big guns it shapes as a most competitive race.
With a couple of notable exceptions, most of the runners are closer to the end of their careers than the beginning. Even the striking three-year-old Lonhro colt Encryption is a run or two from taking up residence at Eureka Stud. A Group 1 win next to his name would do no harm to his appeal or service fee.
We are going to settle on a mare whose standout performances have been against her own sex however she rarely runs a bad race and Queensland has been a happy hunting ground.
She is the five-year-old Beneteau mare Prompt Response who made her track debut at Flemington on that historic first Tuesday in November 2015 when Michelle Payne won the Melbourne Cup on Prince Of Penzance.
Prompt Response was on the undercard in the Group III Ottawa Stakes where she debuted with a second to Concealer.
A fourth in the Group II Magic Night Stakes followed by a second in the Group III Percy Sykes Stakes, Prompt Response rounded out her juvenile year by winning a 1200 metres maiden at Newcastle.
Victories in the Listed Twilight Glow Stakes at Sandown and the Group II Dane Ripper Stakes at Doomben highlighted her three-year-old career but she was runner-up six times in stakes races including the Group 1 Tatts Tiara the race she would win the following year in addition to the Group II Breeders Classic at Warwick Farm and the Group II Emancipation Stakes at Rosehill.
After two sub-par performances last spring, Prompt Response was transferred from the Waterhouse/Bott stable to Chris Waller.
She had her first start for her new stable when third behind Trapeze Artist and Shoals in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes at Randwick on March 9 then two weeks later was a well-beaten fourth behind her champion stablemate Winx in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill.
After a break of three weeks, Prompt Response finished seventh behind Kenedna in the Group 1 Coolmore Legacy (1600m) but she was less than a length and a half away from the future Doomben Cup winner.
After a six week freshen-up, a drop back in distance to 1300 metres on Saturday should not prove a problem as Prompt Response has made six starts at the distance for two wins, two seconds and a third.
Prompt Response has banked $1.6 million for her owners, which include her breeder Ron Hamer.
Julian Blaxland’s Blue Sky Bloodstock, purchased Prompt Response’s dam, Prompt, for $45,000 on Hamer’s behalf at the 2011 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Winless in three starts, the daughter of Exceed And Excel was in foal to Statue Of Liberty (USA) and her first foal is the stakes-placed Bel Esprit mare Diamond Glow.
She subsequently foaled a colt that was purchased by Randwick Bloodstock for $50,000 as a weanling before being consigned to the 2013 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Kulani Park where he made $200,000 to the bid of The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Named Mr Right he is still racing successfully in the former colony where he has chalked up eight wins, the latest coming at Happy Valley on May 1.
Ron Hammer had purchased Prompt with the aim of sending her to Beneteau who he had been a part-owner.
The first mating produced the colt Prompt Return, a 7-tme winner including the Group III VRC Maribyrnong Plate.
Then followed Prompt Response after which Prompt was sold privately to SF Bloodstock.
After slipping in 2013 and 2014, Prompt produced a colt by Dissident. The champion son of Sebring out of Diana’s Secret would go to produce 5-time Group One winner, Dissident, which Ron Hamer had kept a share in after the horse was sold to Peter Moody for $210,000 as a yearling at the Gold Coast Magic Millions.
The Dissident colt was purchased by George Moore Bloodstock at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $525,000 and at this year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, Newgate Farm sold Prompt’s Medaglia d’Oro (USA) colt to Hermitage Thoroughbreds for $450,000.
Prompt’s 2018 foal by Capitalist died after birth and she was not covered last spring.
A half-sister to four winners including the stakes-placed Montoux (Montjeu), Prompt is a daughter of the talented Desert Sun mare Amnesia, a winner of five races and a placegetter in nine black-type races in Australia and New Zealand and fourth in the Group 1 NZ One Thousand Guineas.
Tragically, Beneteau (Redoute’s Choice) (pictured below) died after two seasons, leaving 136 live foals of which 10 are stakes winners.
