Mick Price and Michel Kent Jnr celebrated a stakes double with young jockey Thomas Stockdale on William Reid Stakes Day at Moonee Valley.
The promising 3-year-old filly Vibrant Sun started the ball rolling in the Group III Alexandria Stakes.
By The Autumn Sun out of the Written Tycoon mare Vibrant Rouge, Vibrant Sun passed the baton to her stablemate Gumdrops, who completed an extraordinary day for Written Tycoon when staking a claim for the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes with a dominant performance in the PKF Don Casboult Classic (1200m).
The winner of the Listed MVRC William Crockett Stakes over the same course and distance last October, Gumdrops defeated the fast-finishing Moesha (I Am Invincible) by one and a quarter lengths, with Inhibitions (Zoustar) a head back in third, in a trifecta for Inglis Easter graduates.
A $600,000 purchase for Sheamus Mills Bloodstock from the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft, Gundrops advances her record to three wins and a third from five starts with earnings of $268,425.
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uo;Gumdrops is a better filly than she was last time in. I’m very happy for Thomas,” Price said.
“He’s riding confidently, isn’t he? I saw him go for a run on the inside, and I thought, ‘cocky’, but I’m happy for him. We’ve got a lot of good riders coming and riding work and he has made the most of his opportunity today.
“He didn’t panic, and I suppose now we have to work out what is next.1200 metres is good for this filly. It is ideal.
“How do you win a Group 1 with her? Possibly look to the Sangster: Fillies and mares, why wouldn’t she?”.
Gundrops was bred by Ravenswood Bloodstock’s Phillip Pollicina, and is the first and only foal of Group III winning Not a Single Doubt mare Sugar Bella, who died prematurely in 2021. Sugar Bella was a half-sister to stakes-winner Willy Jimmy from Group III winner Hula Wonder.
