Top – Stay Silent 3rd Listed Taj Rossi Series Final : Below – Prinzerro 2nd Listed Creswick Sprint Series Final
The Bennett Racing Team were out in force at last weekend’s Finals Day at Flemington with two new stakeshorses.
Deep Field 2yo colt Stay Silent was first to shine delivering on the promise he had shown the Team with a great 3rd in the Listed Taj Rossi Series Final over 1600m. Under jockey Blaike McDougall the well bred Deep Field colt jumped well and put himself up near the lead and raced prominently throughout although a little strongly. The colt did hit the lead momentarily in the straight at the 400m mark and in the end was a terrific 3rd beaten 3.3 Len.
The stakes placing took his overall record to 3 starts, 0 – 0 – 1 $26,250 and promise of much more to come. Stay Silent was a 145k purchase from his breeders Newgate farm at the 2023 MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Stay Silent comes from a big American Stakes family. He is the 2nd foal of the Listed winning American mare Paulita a daughter of Champion Sire Scat Daddy, sire of freakish young stallion Justify. Paulita is a ¾ sister in-blood to 3 time Stakeswinner Sales Tax. Her dam is the 6 time stakeswinning & Group 3 winning mare Blind Date. Blind date is a daughter of 4 time stake wining & Group 2 winner Snit. There are 13 stakeshorses decended from Snit herself and her daughters incl Commandperformance (Union Rags) who was 2nd Group 1 Belmont Champagne S & 4th Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Group 1.
This was the 3rd time in the Listed Taj Rossi Series Final that a Bennett Racing 2yo had placed with Goldifox and Magnaspin placing 3rd previously.
Stay Silent is a colt certainly on the up and will be aimed at the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas in the spring.
A few hours later Prinzerro added his 1st blacktype with a game effort in the Listed Creswick Sprint Series Final over 1200 metres. The 3yo son of Champion Pierro has been one of the most consistent horses in the stable running 7 top 3 efforts on only 9 starts. Daniel Stakehouse has built up a real affinity with the gelding, riding him in all his 3 starts this prep for 2 seconds and a third all at Flemington and all down the straight. At some stage in all of those races Prinzerro has looked the winner just to be gunned down at the post. Once again the 3yo jumped well and travelled well under Daniel. He held Prinzerro up as long as he could, setting him alight past the clock tower and was just run down by the filly Right To Party who he gave weight too. The margin 1.2 Len was near the same as when they both met nearly a month ago over 1100m at Flemington, where Prinzerro was 43rd behind her.
The 2nd placing took Prinzerro’s overall record to 9 starts, 1 – 4 – 2 $211,750 a terrific return for his owners.
Prinzerro was purchased at the 2022 MM Gold Coast Yearling Sale from his breeders Yulong, Nagambie for $160,000. He is by the aforementioned Champion Racehorse and Leading Sire Pierro and the 2nd foal out of the fast Exceed And Excel mare Dongxing Princess. This is a family trainer Phillip Stokes knows very well as Dongxing Princess is a ½ sister to Group 2 winner Samara Dancer, Group 3 winner Éclair Big Bang, Group 3 placed Defiant Dancer and Listed placed Dancer’s Kin who were all trained by Phillip Stokes.
Prinzerro has served notice that a 4yo sprinter he will certainly be a force to be reckoned with.
The stakes placings by both horses took Bennett Racing’s overall stakes tally to 18 stakeshorses from only 71 runners which is a tremendous 25.5% !
As the 2023/24 comes to a close Bennett racing has had one of their best ever seasons, achieving their 1st Group 1 success when Southport Tycoon won the Group 1 Australian Guinea’s. Bennett Racing 2023/24 Stakes performances-
1st Group 1 Australian Guinea’s – Southport Tycoon
1st Group 2 Q22 – Fawkner Park GB
1st Listed Churchill Stks (IRE) – Warnie IRE
1st Listed Albury Gold Cup – Fawkner Park
1st Listed Wagga Wagga Gold Cup – Fawkner Park
2nd Group 2 Australia Day Stks – Southport Tycoon
2nd Group 2 Autumn Stks – Southport Tycoon
2nd Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude – Stay Focused
2nd Listed Bendigo Mile – Sibaaq GB
3rd Group 1 Newmarket Hcp – The Astrologist
3rd Group 1 Doomben Cup – Fawkner Park
3rd Listed Furphy Plte – Sibaaq GB
Together with Bennett Racing 4yo Magnaspin’s great win in the 500k The Coast this season has generated over 4.2mil in prizemoney won by Bennett Racing horses.