Champion
trainer Darren Weir already has a strong hand for the upcoming Group I SAJC
Australasian Oaks and unearthed an SA Derby contender on Saturday at
Morphettville when the Yarraman Park bred and sold Leicester won the Group III
SAJC Chairman's Stakes.
Progressive Wanted gelding Leicester was a good last start fourth in the Listed
SAJC Port Adelaide Guineas and upped the ante for this 2035 metre assignment
for which he started favourite.
Leicester enjoyed a good run in transit for Damian Lane and held off the fast
finish of runner-up High 'n' Dry to win by three-quarters of a length.
Leicester has the overall record of three wins and two placings from eight
starts and has won nearly $150,000 for his owners who include bloodstock agent
Paul Willetts, who bought him for a bargain $10,000 from the Yarraman Park draft
at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale in 2015.
Leicester will seek to give Darren Weir a hat-trick in the Group I SAJC Derby
as he has won it for the past two years with Howard Be Thy Name and Volatile
Mix.
Leicester is the first foal of Defy the Odds (GB), a placed half-sister by
Galileo to Group III winner Index Linked.
Defy the Odds has since produced consecutive fillies for Yarraman Park by I Am
Invincible that have sold for $170,000 in 2017 and $300,000 in 2018.
Leicester is the third stakes-winner for Fastnet Rock's Group I winning son
Wanted, who now stands in Queensland at Clear Mountain Fairview.
He is interestingly bred on the white hot Fastnet Rock x Galileo cross that runs
at an astonishing 18% stakes-winners to runners!