Barely a day goes by without a son or daughter of Exceed And Excel winning a race somewhere in the world.
Lately, that record is being matched by his fellow Australian-bred sprinter and Darley stallion Sepoy, whose daughter Alizee further established herself as his best with her brilliant victory in last Saturday’s G2 Expressway Stakes at Rosehill Gardens.
Alizee, who is out of the Exceed And Excel mare Essaouira, had already registered two G1 victories in three-year-old fillies’ company last season.
But her two wins in two starts this time in, while not at the same grade, have taken her to new heights with both being achieved against older males in open, weight-for-age company.
Alizee produced a near-peak performance in the Expressway Stakes, cruising away from the dual-G1 winner Le Romain (Hard Spun) to win by two lengths.
As well as confirming Alizee’s status and enhancing her already impressive pedigree, the win greatly improved her chances of gaining a place in the field for the All-Star Mile, the latest creation of Australia’s ever-inventive racing administrators, to be run at Flemington on Saturday, 16 March.
While Alizee gave Sepoy his seventh win for the week on Saturday and his 22nd worldwide for the year, Exceed And Excel rolled in his 37th for 2019 when Sun Patch, an $800,000 yearling sold through the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale – his highest-priced for 2018 – opened his account with a Sydney success on Tuesday.
That followed a weekend haul led by Nafaayes in the G2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas at Turffontein, South Africa. The filly from the Dehere mare Decelerator was bred by Kia Ora Stud in NSW and is raced by Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum.
In Australia, the Exceed And Excel colt McLaren won Saturday’s G3 Canonbury Stakes for two-year-old colts and geldings at Rosehill in Sydney.
Something of a one-horse multi-national, McLaren’s ownership includes the China Horse Club, the US-based Winstar Farms and local operation Newgate Stud.
