Talent heads on the Oaks trail

A day after Dawn Approach's sensational performance in the 2,000 Guineas, another three-year-old by New Approach stamped herself as a likely Classic contender, when the lightly-raced Talent landed the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes. A winner on her second start as a juvenile and making her seasonal reappearance here, she pulled hard early in the ten-furlong contest before gamely beating Lady Nouf (Teofilo) by half a length with the pair pulling two-and-a-quarter lengths clear of the third.

Bred by Ashbrittle Stud and M H Dixon, Talent hails from a stamina-packed family that implies that if she learns to settle she will improve for the mile-and-a-half Oaks trip. Her dam Prowess was Stakes-placed in the Cheshire Oaks and is a daughter of G3 winner Yawl, who in turn is a daughter of Oaks heroine Bireme. Prowess, who has now produced two Stakes performers from her first two runners, also has a full-sister yearling to Talent.

New Approach has now sired five Stakes winners including the magnificent unbeaten Dawn Approach, the ill-fated Newfangled, so impressive when winning the G3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot last season and Tha'Ir, another Royal Ascot Stakes winning juvenile. Standing this season at Northwood Park for a fee of $55,000 inc. GST, New Approach has also sired G3-winning juvenile Montsegur from his first Australian crop.