Exceed And Excel's superb season in 2007/’08, which saw him crowned Australia’s champion first-season sire, is looking to have been merely a harbinger of things to come, because he is enjoying similar success this term with his second crop of two-year-olds.
The last week of January was a particularly good one for Exceed And Excel, with two Listed-winning juveniles – Reward For Effort in the Blue Diamond Preview at Caulfield and Mrs Kipling in the Elwick Stakes at Hobart – and February has started in similarly exciting style, judged on the mightily impressive winning debut of Essaouira at Moonee Valley on Friday night.
Not only was Essaouira a heavily backed favourite for the Valleyevent.net.au Maiden Plate (1000m), but she was also supported in advance of the race for both the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper. This support was made to look inspired as the race unfolded: jumping straight to the front under Kerrin McEvoy, the Lee Freedman-trained filly pulled steadily away from the pack, passing the post a comfortable six lengths clear of her rivals, which included Carlton Forward, a winner at Flemington in December and a good fifth in the Magic Millions Classic on his last start. This impressive performance has seen Essaouira kept very safe by bookmakers for the Blue Diamond and the Slipper: she is currently an $8 chance for the former and at $10 for the latter.
Essaouira is certainly bred to succeed, being by Exceed And Excel from Alizes, a Group Two-winning daughter of Rory’s Jester and the Group One-winning Euclase mare La Baraka. Alizes was a top two-year-old in 2003/’04: having run second to the Alinghi in the Debutante Stakes at Caulfield, she progressed to win the Waltzing Lily at Flemington and the Magic Night at Rosehill. She subsequently showed similarly solid form as a three-year-old, splitting Patpong and Regimental Gal in the Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield.
Three-year-old Petrenko, who was Exceed And Excel's most expensive yearling to date having sold for $1.2m at the 2007 Easter Sale, broke his maiden at Mornington on Friday. The son of the Group One winner Skating, who is a half-brother to G3 winner Murtajill and Skates, the dam of G1 winner Juste Momente, was making just his third racecourse appearance for Sheikh Mohammed and trainer Lee Freedman.
Exceedingly French and Reward For Effort represent Exceed And Excel in the line-up for the postponed Blue Diamond Prelude races on Sunday, which have been rescheduled owing to the extreme temperatures forecast at Caulfield on Saturday.
Racing went ahead in Brisbane, however, where Streets Away, a son of Street Cry, forced his way into the reckoning for the G1 Golden Slipper betting with an impressive three-and-three-quarter length victory at Doomben for his second win in as many starts. At Ascot in Perth, Tiger Hili celebrated his first southern hemisphere winner when Hallowell Express, from the son of Danehill's first Australian-bred crop, saluted in the 1200m Motive Travel Plate.
In New Zealand, Te Rapa's card featured three Group races, incuding the G1 Waikato Draught Sprint in which eight-time winner Gaze, by Cape Cross, finished runner-up. The race was won last year by her paternal half-sister Seachange. Now six, Gaze is a former winner of the G1 Starcraft NZ Stakes, the G2 NRM/Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes and the G3 Doom Roses. The Inglis Classic Sale starts in Sydney on Sunday with six Cape Cross yearlings set to go under the hammer.
