Var
It has been a great week all over the world for Avontuur’s star-studded stallion duo of new man Oratorio and the irrepressible Var. Oratorio followed up Mourinho’s Australian Gr1 victory last weekend, with a Gr1 placing as well as a stakes winner in Europe.
Locally, Var has enjoyed a purple patch with his offspring winning all over the country.
Since last Saturday, the son of Forest Wildcat has been represented by no fewer than eight individual winners, with a number of his offspring looking like horses likely to go on to bigger and better things as the season progresses.
He had a pair of winners on Saturday (Varumba and Kingoftheworld), had another smart looking winner at Scottsville the next day in the form of Timeous, and has since followed up with another five winners this week.
A newsworthy debut winner was Var’s one-eyed daughter Hanabi at Durbanville last Wednesday for trainer Eric Sands. In fact the first two races at Durbanville were both won by Var daughters, with the beautifully bred Miss Marker landing the spoils in race two.
Var’s great run of success has propelled the popular stallion into ninth place on the General Sires Log, a position he should improve on further as the season progresses.
The Big O
Oratorio
The new man Oratorio is on an international ‘stakes roll’ this week, with his son, Pentagono winning the 2200m Listed Premio Villa Borghese in Italy on Sunday. His victory brought Oratorio’s stakes win tally to 49.
The 4yo Pentagono is coming into this own with 4 wins from his 8 starts this year.
Avontuur’s world class sire has certainly built up a superb record in Italy. T
The triple G1 winning son of Danehill has twice headed the General Sires List in Italy, where his offspring have won such noteworthy races as the Italian Oaks, Italian Derby, Italian 1000 Guineas and the Gran Premio Di Milano, to name a few.
Oratorio is also the sire of recent Gr1 Underwood Stakes winner and millionaire Mourinho. The latter features among the third acceptances for the $3.05 million Cox Plate to be run on October 24th.
Oratorio has another talented Aussie based son to his credit in the form of G3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup winner Sons Of John, who ran a cracking third in Saturday’s G1 Epsom Handicap. Sons Of John looks capable of providing his fashionable sire with potentially yet another major Gr1 score.
Then in the Southern Hemisphere, at Royal Randwick on Epsom Day Saturday, Oratorio’s Sons Of John ran an outstanding third in the $1 million Star 150th Gr1 Epsom Handicap.
The Gr3 Hawkesbury Gold Cup winner was only his trainer’s second Saturday city starter.
And it was veteran jockey Jeff Penza’s biggest race of his lengthy career, which has mainly been confined to provincial and country racing. Penza has always rated Sons Of John a ‘Gr1 horse’.
Sons of John has been competitive wherever he raced, but his rise has been rapid since he broke into black-type racing in his Hawkesbury Gold Cup win before going down narrowly in the Gr2 Theo Marks Stakes, when Epsom favourite Winx beat him by a half-head.
For owner John Kelly, Sons Of John’s name was just the start of his being a top performer.
“My dad’s name is John Kelly, his father was John Kelly, I’m John Kelly, I’ve got a son John Kelly and I’ve got a grandson John Kelly,” said Sons of John’s owner, the third generation John Kelly.
Pippa Mickleburgh – riding the crest of a wave
“My father always taught me you’ve got to have a really good name to have a really good horse,” he told Queenslandcountrylife.com
Avontuur General Manager Pippa Mickleburgh said that the well established and proven international stakes performances of Oratorio’s offspring was excellent news on the eve of his first SA yearlings being offered locally in January.
“What a terrific opportunity for those buyers attending the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1 in January!” said Pippa.
