Ali-Royal's first ever Australian based winner Fracas has
scored her second stakes win when she easily won yesterday's $101,025 Gold Sovereign
Stakes on Launceston Cup Day.
Fracas, a member of the powerful Longford based Blacker
stable, won her fourth race from just her fifth start.
The filly should probably be unbeaten after having no luck
and being blocked during her only defeat, a third placing in late January.
Since that event Fracas has proven she is a star filly with
two consecutive wins in listed company. Before yesterday's Gold Sovereign Stakes win
Fracas had scored a fighting win over Venus a Go Go in the listed Elwick Stakes.
Sadly, Ali-Royal was tragically lost to the breeding scene
when he died after serving his third Australian crop at Lynden Park Stud in 2000.
A top liner on the track Ali-Royal had 17 starts for six
wins. His best success came in the Group One Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, which was one of
his four wins at stakes level.
The stallion was exactly what Lynden Park were looking for
at the time.
"He seemed the perfect solution," recalls Lynden
Park's Julie Nairn.
"At the time Royal Academy was certainly firing. He
looked a perfect match for the coarse type of mare we have in Australia. Ali was a more
refined type and we were excited about his future," Nairn said.
"He was a Group One winning miler and he is from a
fantastic female family," she added.
Ali-Royal's dam Alidiva, a stakes winner herself, is also
responsible for fellow 1997 Group One winners Sleepytime (English 1000 Guineas) and Taipan
(Europa Preis). In fact Ali-Royal is a full brother to Sleepytime.
Understandably so the staff of Lynden Park were devastated
when they heard the news that the second season shuttle sire was gravely ill in
quarantine.
"He had just served his third season here at the farm
and he was in quarantine in Sydney."
"It was a massive case of travel sickness I guess you
can put it. He scoured badly and sadly he couldn't be saved."
"To say it was an emotional time was an
understatement," Nairn added.
Leading stables from around the country are all singing the
praises of his first Australian crop, who are expected to step out on the mainland in the
near future.
Mick Price, Greg Eurell, Graham Woolston, Lee Freedman and
David Balfour have all predicted a good future for Ali-Royal two-year-olds currently in
work in their yard.
During his three seasons at the Red Hill South based
breeding property Ali-Royal served 265 mares. While in the Northern Hemisphere he served
the exact same figure at Coolmore Stud in Ireland.
Already in the northern hemisphere his progeny have
delivered the goods and among the early runners are Royal Rhapsody an impressive stakes
winner in Italy, and Brooklyn, who is Group placed in Ireland. During the 2001 calendar
year he has been represented by 23 individual winners and has been in the top three first
season sires in that part of the world for the whole year.
Nairn said she was delighted with the early results for
Ali-Royal in Australia following on from the success he had already received in the
Northern Hemisphere.
"It's no surprise he's leaving runners here, let's
just hope they keep running and he gets a good reputation like he deserves," she
said. |
