What a great headliner for Redente is Just Stellar, the gutsy and talented mare living up to her name as being one of the most successful horses by number of wins in Victoria this year.
And she is the leading Victorian provincial horse by numbers of wins for the season having won four of six since the start of August... the Christopher Davies trained six-year-old is flying!
Not having
much luck in the two defeats amongst that winning run, Just Stellar has amassed
over $135,000 for her happy connections and her breeders Russell Osborne and Dr
Caroline Duddy of Riverbank Farm have been cheering her on.
"She is a great advertisement for Redente," they said, "and so typical of the breed - tough, sound and determined."
With his reputation as a fine horseman, Christopher Davies was chosen to train Just Stellar due to her strong personality and he is very glad to have her.
"She can be difficult but we respect each other," he said, so impressed by the mare ("she is a powerhouse who has everything you want in a horse") that he has become a firm fan of her sire, buying others and breeding his own.
"We just love them and we are very excited about getting them to the track," he enthused.
"They are just so absolutely tough and hard, they are good strong horses who thrive on their work."
"In fact the harder I work Just Stellar, the more she gives," he said, adding that he is hopeful of securing a run in a Listed race for her next time out.
Also breeders of Just Stellar's five times winning sister, Riverbank Farm has been home to the unraced but spectacularly bred Redente since his retirement to stud in 2009.
From day one he proved his worth, his first small crop producing just 13 runners, nine of whom have been winners; a strike race in excess of 69%. His second crop performed even better; 12 winners from 17 runners; between them the winners of 41 races.
Redente's third crop, from which Just Stellar hails, has produced 72.7% winners-to-runners; 16 winners from 22 runners winning 39 races.
Which just goes to show that Redente is the perfect choice for the owner/breeder, a stallion whose progeny really know how to find the line - in the process providing their connections with a whole lot of fun!
Well over a third of Redente's winners have won at least four races including his Redentes Edge (nine wins), Just Stellar (seven wins), Squeaky Squirrel (seven wins), Aunty Elsie (six wins) and Grey Strike (six wins).
All but two of Redente's first 70 runners have earned prize money... some feat for a horse who did not make it to the track himself!
But pedigree can so often overcome performance and Redente (who incurred a foot injury as a yearling) is as well bred as they come, being a son of super stallion Redoute's Choice, three times Australian Champion Sire of 160 stakes winners.
32 of Redoute's Choices progeny have been successful at Group One level whilst 20 of his sons have sired stakes winners, making him Australia's dominant sire of sires force.
And what a family it is from which Redente hails, his dam Stella Cadente - Group One winner of the Australia Stakes - producing six winners including the Gimcrack Stakes winner Brilliant Bisc and the stakes placed Starfish (in turn dam of the stakes placed Wolf Cry and Glenbawn Dane) and Moon Fever (dam of the Hong Kong Gr.3 winner Dashing Fellow and the local two times Listed winner Aeronautical).
That's a lot of black type under one mare's name and there is so much more around her, Stella Cadente being out of the Gr.1 placed Temple Fire, grandam of stakes winner At The Oasis and daughter of the wonderful mare Eau d'Etoile.
The Eulogy Stakes winner proved to be one of the best broodmares of the 1990s, producing the marvellous gallopers Bint Marscay (Golden Slipper Stakes), Filante (Epsom Handicap, Caulfield Stakes) and Kenny's Best Pal (Australian Guineas).
Three of the 14 stakes winners to descend from Eau d'Etoile with others including the Group One gallopers Bollinger and Benicio and the Group winners Friesan Fire, Villermont, Sheraton, Mannington, Romneya and Rosa Imperial.
A real favourite at Riverbank, the imposing Redente stamps his progeny and the best is still to come with his support, on the back of his terrific early success, increasing considerably in recent years.
"We expect to see another surge of Redente winners as they come through," Dr Duddy said, noting that he served 104 mares in 2016 and 81 the previous year.
