The victory on Saturday of Exceed And Excel's son Reward For Effort (pictured) in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield has proved the perfect curtain-raiser for the forthcoming Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction, near Melbourne. Reward For Effort is a graduate of last year’s Premier Yearling Sale, at which he was consigned by Bassinghall Farm. He was bought there by Dean Watt’s Dynamic Syndications, joined the Caulfield stable of Peter Moody – and now he is the winner of Melbourne’s premier two-year-old race.
Purchasers eager to find another Reward For Effort will doubtless be keen to inspect the stock of Exceed And Excel, and the good news is that the boom young sire has 13 yearlings catalogued in the first session. Reward For Effort is a typical son of Exceed And Excel – who is also the sire of the third place-getter in the Blue Diamond, Maka Ena – because the stallion’s haul of Stakes-winning juveniles this season also includes Mrs Kipling, Exceedingly French and Noesis, while his first crop of two-year-olds last season included the likes of Wilander, Sugar Babe, Believe‘N’Succeed, Exceedingly Good and Outdo.
Commands is another young stallion whose offspring have always proved popular in Victoria – witness the Oakleigh Plate victory of Undue –and he is another Darley sire very well represented at the sale, with 18 yearlings on offer in the first session. However, the best-represented Darley sire at the sale is Reset, and his sons and daughters are sure to come under very close scrutiny. Currently vying with Exceed And Excel in a tight race for the title of Australia’s leading second-crop sire, Reset, who himself was a Group One winner at both Flemington and Caulfield in his racing days, has been represented by a mass of winners this season, with the Victoria Derby success of Rebel Raider taking the star billing. Rebel Raider’s recent resumption at Moonee Valley over 1200m was outstanding, and he looks well on course to attempt to complete the rare Derby double – last achieved by Mahogany in 1993/’94 – at Randwick on Easter Saturday. Reset has 32 sons and daughters in the first session of the Premier Sale, and looks sure to post very good figures.
Another stallion whose current yearlings were conceived at Darley Victoria who looks set for a great sale is Street Cry, currently one of the hottest stallions in the world. Sire of eight individual Group/Grade One winners worldwide including Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic heroine Zenyatta, Street Cry has received the perfect advertisement in Australia via Caulfield Guineas winner Whobegotyou, and many will regard this further opportunity to purchase his offspring too good to miss.
Other Darley stallions with double-figure representation in the first session at Oaklands are the evergreen Canny Lad (with 11 yearlings catalogued) and the exciting young sires Lonhro (who is currently lying second to Exceed And Excel in the second-crop sires’ premiership by individual winners) and Shamardal, who have 19 and 11 yearlings on offer respectively. Of stallions with slightly fewer yearlings in the sale, the eight sons and daughters of Cape Cross – sire of six individual Group One winners who have no fewer than 18 Group One victories between them – are bound to prove popular, while the nine yearlings by the extremely successful dual-hemisphere sire Elusive Quality - best known in Australia as the sire of AJC Sires’ Produce winner Camarilla, but internationally renowned for the likes of Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones and Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Raven's Pass - are also sure to attract plenty of attention.
In total, 23 Darley stallions will have yearlings in the sale. So, whatever your preference and whatever your budget, there are sure to be some Darley-sired yearlings to suit.
