Sydney Cup Contender Secured

In addition to having the pre-post favourite, Gingernuts (Iffraaj), for the $2m Australian Derby (Gr. 1, 2400m) on Saturday at Royal Randwick, Te Akau trainers Stephen Autridge & Jamie Richards will also have a runner in the $2m Sydney Cup (Gr. 1, 3200m) on 8 April.

Te Akau principal David Ellis reported that he had signed for proven racehorse Chance to Dance (Teofilo) at the inaugural Inglis Chairman's Sale of Elite Racing Prospects on 30 March at their Newmarket complex in Sydney, and that the horse is guaranteed a start in the Cup.

“I bought the horse for $260,000 at the sales, through Jamie (Richards), for John Galvin's Fortuna Syndicate,” Ellis said.

“After the Sydney Cup we plan for him to campaign with the team of Te Akau horses bound for Brisbane, and following on we expect him to be a competitive weight-for-age and cups horse back in the New Zealand.”

Bought two years ago by Nick and Lloyd Williams, who made history when Almandin (Monsun) became their fifth Melbourne Cup winner last year, the Irish import Chance to Dance has won seven of his twenty-seven starts, $450,795 in prize money, and after recently finishing fourth in the Adelaide Cup (Gr. 2, 3200m) under 58kgs, he drops to 51.5kgs next Saturday.

“We identified this horse through the Chairman's Sale, which has been a great initiative by Inglis to offer these elite racing prospects,” Ellis said.

“We had the horse inspected at Williams' Macedon Lodge in Victoria, vetted out by Maxine Brain, inspected by Brent Thompson from New Zealand Bloodstock, and also had our vet Dr. Douglas Black check the x-rays in the Repository.”

Richards said: “The horse is going to have a hit out on Saturday morning in Victoria, as his preparation continues towards the Sydney Cup. He will then travel to Sydney early next week and join Gingernuts in the boxes we have at Randwick, and Steve and I will top off his training ahead of the Cup.

“John (Galvin) had previously purchased an older horse, Zabene, and he raced on successfully with Te Akau to win a few times and included a listed victory in the Metropolitan Handicap at Riccarton.   Mark (Walker) has been quite influential in discussions with John about approaching syndication in a slightly different manner, buying tried horses and one with quality such as this that is rarely available for sale.

Richards reported from the sale that star juvenile Gunnison (Not a Single Doubt) was the highest priced purchase of the ten lots on offer, when selling for $1.4 million.

“The sale is a really good initiative, because it gives people in the industry another way to both buy and sell horses of this quality. The Williams family wanted to support the sale with a staying horse of potential and Dave is thrilled that he was able to buy him,” Richards said.

“Chance to Dance has not got many miles on the clock, is a very good-looking horse, and it will be exciting to get to know him better over the next week to ten days and both Steve and I are excited about having the opportunity to train him.”

With Chance to Dance being a live prospect in the Sydney Cup, at $15, Fortuna Syndications receive another shot at glory soon after Melody Belle (Commands), bought by Ellis and prepared by Autridge & Richards, took out the $1m Karaka Million (Listed, 1200m) at Ellerslie.

“Mark Walker and I have talked about the idea of buying a proven staying horse out of Australia, who could be termed second-tier, but also a potential top performer at a good value investment price,” Galvin said.

“The thinking being that once settled in they could prove pretty competitive at the top end in New Zealand. And it's been underlined by horses like Willie Cazal winning the Livamol Classic, and Miss Impatience winning the Wellington Cup.  These sorts of horses are obviously not easy to come by and two or three we have looked at in the past couple of years were not sound.

“He's extremely readymade, as a runner in the Sydney Cup next week, and our due diligence of his recent runs suggests that he is indeed a sound horse. He's won over 2400 metres in February at Caulfield, and after getting a bit further back than intended he finished fourth in the Adelaide Cup, so clearly 3200 metres is not beyond him.

“Following inspection by the experts, the conclusion they came to was that there was no physical reason why we could not buy Chance to Dance, and can expect him to be running up to the form that he's shown.  In the meantime, behind the scenes, I've been promoting this horse to the Fortuna clients, taking expressions of interest, and as at auction time had ninety-five percent commitment,” he said.

Only a matter of months ago, Te Akau and Fortuna Syndications celebrated their 100^th success together when Dame Margo Fonteyn (High Chaparral) scored in December at New Plymouth.

“Buying this horse is a bit of a coup for Fortuna, and also for Te Akau,” Galvin said.