Leading third-season sire Lonhro recorded his 13th individual Stakes winner on Saturday when his four-year-old daughter Renaissance just edged her stablemate and paternal half-sister Beaded in a photo finish to win the G2 Lady Sonia McMahon Memorial (Sapphire Stakes) at Randwick.
With Beaded taking the lead 100m out having sat just off the pace, the result looked to be going her way but Renaissance unleashed a tremendous late charge and flew home to take the $150,000 contest and record her first Black type win.
Renaissance has now won six of her 13 starts and is now likely to head for the $100,000 Darley Crown at Hawkesbury on 1 May. Beaded remains a wonderfully consistent performer, never finishing out of the placings in 11 starts. She will now be aimed at set weight races in Sydney and Brisbane.
Lonhro saw two more of his offspring hit the board in Stakes contests when Status Quo took second in the G3 Asian Racing Federation Trophy, following Euphemism’s second place in the Listed Carbine Club Stakes, a race in which Shamardashing (Shamardal) took third.
Also at Randwick, the feature two-year-old race of the day – the G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes – saw Commands colt Skilled come agonisingly close to taking his first race at the highest level when beaten by the shortest of short heads by Yosei.
Meanwhile at Morphettville, two-year-old Lonhro colt The Ruffian finished second in the G3 SA Sires’ Produce Stakes ahead of Safe (Strategic).
