Yulong Stud’s $2,600,000 purchase Clean Energy has clearly inherited more than a splattering of her sibling’s ability, keeping her record perfect at two for two while opening her stakes account in Saturday’s Listed City Property Services Bill Carter Stakes (1200m) at Doomben.
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained daughter of Zoustar showed a heavy track was no problem when winning a midweek on a heavy track at Warwick Farm on debut. She had the Snitzel filly Lady Shenandoah behind her in third place that day, and the bluebloods were in a class of their own in the Bill Carter Stakes.
With Adam Hyeronimus in the saddle, Clean Energy settled outside the leader, Zatanna. Hitting the front at the 300m, the daughter of Zoustar was always hilding the challenge of Lady Shenandoah, who closed to three-quarters of a length on the line.
The I Am Invincible filly Canara was four and a half lengths back in third.
“Lovely to see the nice progression from her. It is important for her to come away at this point of her career; she is still very lightly raced and still new,” Adrian Bott said.
“We’ve got bigger things in store, and you have not seen the best of her yet. She’s a very progressive filly, and I think today has been a real positive. We’ll see that improvement in the spring.
“She’s got phenomenal balance, everything is in proportion and everything is as it should be. You could look at her all day parading there.
“Great to see her run up to those looks and she’s got the pedigree to match.
“Vin (Cox) is here today and we’ll have a chat with Yulong and Coolmore with regard to what we do with her. Initial thoughts are looking towards the spring. We want to look after her and we do hold over a nomination for the Sires’ next week.
“Whether that is something we want to look at, it is in the back of our minds, but there are a lot of things to consider other than that.”
Adam Hyeronimus has no doubt Clean Energy ranks highly among a sensational group of 2-year-olds at Tulloch Lodge.
“She’s a very nice filly and she just feels like she’s so far advanced for her age,” he said
“Measuring her up with the other two-year-olds that we have in our stable, she’s one of the better fillies in the stable and that is saying something as Gai and Adrian have basically won every two-year-old race this season.
“It is pleasing, pleasing for the owners who have invested a lot of money. They’ve got that stakes win now.
“We’ve exposed some very good two-year-olds in the last couple of weeks - a colt and a filly - it is exciting for the staff, too, that we have these (rising) three-year-olds to take into the spring.”
A $2.6million Magic Millions purchase for Yulong from the Widden Stud draft, Clean Energy is a sister to champion filly Sunlight, a triple Group I winner of $6.5 million, and Group III winner Sisstar.
She is the eighth winner from nine foals to race for the Group III winning Charge Forward mare Solar Charged.
Clean Energy was the second highest-priced yearling at Magic Millions in 2023 and was the highest-priced yearling filly sold anywhere in Australia that year.
China Horse Club / Newgate / Go Bloodstock / Trilogy bought the brother to Clean Energy at Inglis Easter for $850,000.
A partner of Zoustar in eight of the last nine years, Solar Charged is now back in foal to Zoustar after missing to him in 2022.
Clean Energy is the 54th stakes-winner for Widden Stud’s Zoustar and the 15th of the season, joining I Am Invincible on that mark.
