Exceed And Excel Colts Finish One-Two

With seven of the 11 strong field in the first juvenile black type race of the day being progeny of the Darley stallions, the result continued that trend with Godolphin’s Exceed And Excel colts Haptic and Furnaces finishing one-two, with Street Cry’s Wolf Cry third in the Listed Lonhro Plate (1100m) at Royal Randwick.

Swiftly away from barrier two, jockey Blake Shinn drove the last start winner Haptic straight to the lead where he settled well and controlled the race.

With stablemate Furnaces following him throughout, Haptic came slightly wide as they rounded the home turn, fighting down the home straight to hold off the challenges from the rest of the field to remain undefeated and become the 92nd Stakes winner for his sire.

Bred by Darley in Australia, the G1 Golden Slipper bound Haptic is the first Stakes winner for the Beautiful Crown mare Troubeaut, whose only other foal to race is the stakes placed Heart’s Delight.

As the sire of 10 individual juvenile winners this season including the Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Le Chef, Exceed And Excel is the current leading sire of two-year-olds in Australia.

With his yearlings already selling up to $800,000 this year, Exceed And Excel will be represented by 11 yearlings at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and a further 20 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, while his triple G1-winning son Helmet will be represented by 32 and 5 lots respectively.