Best On Breeding

Mark Smith - Friday September 13

Just eight runners but what a quality field of three-year-olds Saturday’s $200,000 Group II Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens has drawn.

And there are any number of our old favourites like Exceedance, Yes Yes Yes, Bivouac and Kubrick in the field but we might go for a bit of value in the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Dawn Passage. 


The son of Dawn Approach (IRE) has won two of his three starts including a last start win in the Listed Rosebud (1100m).

He had Bivouac behind him when he made a winning career debut at Randwick in January.

He was then a troubled third behind the top-class Castelvecchio and Accession in the valuable Inglis Millennium.

Off the scene for 26 weeks he finished fast for his maiden stakes win in the Rosebud at Rosehill on August 10.

The industry in South Australia may be facing some difficult times but Dawn Passage’s pedigree screams South Australia.

Bred by South Australian Hall Of Famer Harry Perks and raised on the hallowed grounds of Mill Park Stud, Dawn Passage is a half-brother to the Group III SAJC Jansz Stakes winner Dinkum Diamond (Keep The Faith), out of Raja Lane, a crack racemare by Devaraja, who earned earned over $428,000 with seven wins highlighted by the Group III SAJC Dermody Stakes.

Raja Lane is out of a mare by Francis Bacon, who is out of a mare by Habeas Corpus, who is out of a mare by Boysie Boy.

It doesn’t come any more South Australian than that.

Dawn Passage is the eighth foal and the sixth winner for the now pensioned Raja Lane.

With his win in the Rosebud Dawn Passage became the second stakes-winner in Australia, after Diamond Thunder in the Listed Oxlade Stakes at Doomben, for Darley stud’s 4-time Group 1 winner Dawn Approach (IRE).

The son of New Approach (IRE) covered just 34 mares last spring and did not return in 2019.

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