A STARTLING performance from Royal Symphony marked a landmark 15 metropolitan winners bred from Wingrove Park, after an explosive effort from the son of Domesday to win Saturday's $100,000 Gippsland Region Handicap (1400m) at Flemington.
The Tony McEvoy trained colt kept his unbeaten record intact with a devastating 3¾-length win catapulting him into spring calculations. Ridden by Dwayne Dunn, whose wife Amanda forms part of the ownership, the gifted colt settled last and overhauled his eleven rivals in the most brilliant of fashion.
Royal Symphony formed part of Joe and Daira Vella's 2014 crop and was sold privately in April last year - when not granted entry to Melbourne's thoroughbred auction.
The imposing two-year-old is the seventeenth foal from his dam Naturalist. Her progeny include eight individual winners who have collectively won 19 races and over $450,000 in stakes earnings. Noted performers include stakes performer and Bendigo Cup runner-up Hoodlum, VRC Oaks runner Diva La Belle and seven time winner Just Incredible.
Naturalist (by Palace Music) who resides at Wingrove Park, hails from the dam Tessuti who is a half-sister to champion racehorse and 3x Group 1 winner Naturalism and Queens Oaks winner Crystal Palace.
"We are very proud to have bred and handled such a quality colt – he was a standout from an early age and had the bloodlines to match," Wingrove Park CEO Joseph Vella explained.
"We put our success down to not only great practices on the ground, but in-depth analysis of pedigrees to match the right stallion with a suitable mare"
Statistics suggest that theory is working, a win or placing in the Listed $120,000 Taj Rossi Series Final (1600m) on July 8 would make it nine black-type performers from the first-class property. Wingrove Park has been the home to star gallopers such as the Hong Kong trained Fair Trade, Morphettville Guineas winner Sparks Fly and dual stakes winner Classiconi – boasting it's own Equine Hospital with ICU Facilities, Indoor Training Complex on their immaculate grounds..
"Unlike the big studs, we're only breeding a select group of horses each year but like to think we're the small breeders getting big results," Vella said.
If his pedigree page is anything to go by, the best is yet to come from Royal Symphony. He is just the second two-year-old winner from a damline who is renowned for producing milers, as is his stallion Domesday.
"His breeding suggest he will furnish into a lovely three-year-old as the whole family tends to do – Naturalist has been such a good producer of racehorses over a long period of time," claimed Vella.
Tony McEvoy unveiled his star colt was likely to be aimed at the $350,000 Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) on November 18 before a tilt in the Autumn at the $750,000 Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on March 3, 2018.
"That was something special - it's a bit hard in our business to get excited in June when it's cold and normally wet but I feel pretty warm at the moment" Group 1 winning trainer Tony McEvoy said post-race.
"He could go all the way, I would go so far as to say that Hey Doc couldn't do that at that stage and he won the Guineas."
Wingrove Park's 2014 draft also included Lonhro colt Powerstrike, whose impressive trial saw him sold subsequently sold to Hong Kong. Their 2016 crop includes yearlings by Kuroshio, Reset and Skilled.
As the end of the season approaches, the Kerrie-based farm has produced 11 winners for the 2016/17 season that concludes on July 31 with the stud's dual metropolitan winner In Fairness to line-up at Caulfield this Saturday.
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