A Season of Success continues ...

During this final month of the 2017/18 racing season, we continue to look back on a season of success, with a record 17 stakes' wins for the Te Akau team ... including five at the elite Group 1 level ...

Three-year-old Fastnet Rock (Danehill) colt Age Of Fire (ex. Dragon's Tail, by Galileo) gained the ultimate result in securing a stallion career, with victory in the $225,000 Grant Plumbing Levin Classic (Gr. 1, 1600m) on 13 January at Trentham.

Runner-up to stable-mate Embellish (Savabeel) in the 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m), Age Of Fire had staged an herculean effort to steal victory in the 3YO 1400 metres on Boxing Day at Ellerslie, and given a patient ride by Opie Bosson he finished powerfully to deliver with some authority in the Group One mile.

Having his first race day ride on the colt, Bosson said: “He's a lovely horse. He's a big horse, but really light on his feet and that will take him along way.”

After winning the corresponding race in 2017 with Savabeel (Zabeel) colt Hall of Fame, and preparing Heroic Valour to become the first two-year-old Group One winner in the world for Fastnet Rock, the win was another feather in the cap for Te Akau principal David Ellis along with trainers Stephen Autridge & Jamie Richards.

Owned by the Te Akau 2016 Sydney Breeding Syndicate No. 2, Ellis purchased Age of Fire for $400,000 at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale, from Erinvale Thoroughbreds, and with three wins, two seconds and two thirds the big, strapping, colt has established an enviable record.

Ellis was proved right in his assessment of Age Of Fire, when saying: “This horse was bred by Michael Kirwan, from Coolmore Stud in Australia, and I told him four months earlier that Age of Fire was a serious horse in the making and would have no trouble winning Group races.

“He's a great looking colt by a Champion sire, from a daughter of the Champion stallion Galileo, and has a very strong influence of Northern Dancer in his pedigree.”

Age Of Fire is out of the unraced Galileo (Sadler's Wells) mare Dragon's Tail, whose three foals to race, including Age Of Fire, have all been winners. Dragon's Tail herself is out of the Zaitoona (Soviet Star), who is a half-sister to Group One winner Fly To The Stars (Bluebird) and stakes winner Fallen Star (Brief Truce). Fallen Star is the dam of Listed winner Fallen Idol (Pivotal) and Group One winner Fallen For You (Dansili), who produced Group Three winner Glorious Journey (Dubawi).

In winning the Levin Classic, Age Of Fire became the 32nd Group One winner and 126th stakes winner for Coolmore Stud based Fastnet Rock, during a week that saw his progeny sell to $1,000,000 at the Magic Million Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Like Embellish, Age Of Fire is nominated for Champion Three-Year-Old and Horse of the Year, and also earmarked for a stallion career at Cambridge Stud, after new proprietors Brendan (MNZM) & Jo Lindsay secured an ownership share in February this year.