THE fact that Skybird should become a Group 1 winner was not a given, even though she comes from a female family that has proven to be a goldmine in recent years for producing top-class runners.

However, she is the initial Group 1 winner for her sire Exosphere (Lonhro) who has completed his first season at Oaklands Stud in Queensland. His fee has tumbled from an opening A$27,700 to about a quarter of that amount. Skybird is one of 11 stakes winners he has sired, and she has refocused attention on a horse who was a giant – literally – when he was racing.

Despite standing a strong 16.3 hands, Exosphere was an ultra-smart juvenile, with speed his strong feature. John O’Shea, who trained the Godolphin colt to win five of his 10 starts, described him as “a magnificent individual, with enormous natural talent.”

Exosphere was impressive when winning the Group 2 Skyline Stakes at Warwick Farm as a two-year-old by four lengths, but it was in the spring of his three-year-old season that he showed his class and sprinting prowess, with a hat-trick of fine wins.

Exosphere captured the Group 2 Run To The Rose, over six furlongs, which served as a lead-up to his triumph in the fastest-ever Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes, over seven furlongs at Rosehill. He then capped off his career with a fine win, also in record time, in the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes, back over six furlongs at Randwick, again dominating his opposition.

At stud, some 60% of his runners are winners, and when Exosphere retired to stud, he spent a year at Haras du Logis at a fee of €6,000 but did not return to Europe. That single season in France produced the best runner he sired until the appearance of Skybird, and that was Easter. He went to race in the USA and won a pair of Grade 2 races, the Seabiscuit Handicap and the San Gabriel Stakes. That same crop also had the Group 3 Prix du Ris-Orangis winner Ocean among its number.

Investment

Bred by H P Thoroughbreds, Skybird was sold as a yearling for A$110,000 to her trainer, Mitch Freedman. He has turned that investment into a racing career that so far has netted some A$1.3 million for her owners, Skybird’s dozen starts consisting of five wins and three placed efforts. Before her biggest success, she had won twice at Group 2 level, and all of her placed runs have been in pattern company, notably running third in the Group 1 The Thousand Guineas.

Hopefully we will see Skybird in June at Royal Ascot, with her connections perhaps encouraged to travel with her after victory in the Group 1 Lightening Stakes. That said, it was noted that she was lame in the immediate aftermath of the race, won in the past by such as Choisir, Takeover Target, Miss Andretti and Scenic Blast, all of whom later shone in England.

Skybird’s dam Real Desire, a daughter of Wanted (Fastnet Rock), won over seven furlongs, and three of her four foals have run, and all have won. They include a full-brother. Real Desire was the only one of the five winners out of Forest Finch (Waajib) not to win more than once. Three of the others were the stakes-placed Flying Along (Belong To Me) who won 10 races, Canny Finch (Canny Lad) who was successful eight times, and the six-time winner Afforestation (Octagonal).

Snow Finch

People of a certain age will remember Robert Sangster’s Snow Finch (Storm Bird), as she won the Listed Orby Stakes at Leopardstown as a juvenile, nearly four decades ago.

She later headed down under and was hugely influential there. She had two stakes winners among her nine victorious runners, Captain Bax (Snippets) whose 10 wins included a Group 3, and his own-sister Snippets’ Lass. She won seven times, twice in listed races, but she became an outstanding broodmare.

Snippets’ Lass will be forever recalled as the dam of the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate winner and champion sire, Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), the multiple Group 1-placed Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock) who was a champion first-season sire, and the Group 3 winner Viennese. A full-sister to Snitzel, Viennese (Redoute’s Choice) is the grandam of the 2020-21 champion Australian juvenile filly, Arcaded (Street Boss).

It does not stop there. Snippets’ Lass is grandam of the Group 1 Epsom Handicap winner Rediener (Redoute’s Choice), and the third dam of another winner of that Randwick feature, Private Eye (Al Maher).

Classic hope

A quick mention for another of the weekend winners, this time the now classic hope Sepals. This three-year-old son of Castlehyde’s Calyx (Kingman), has won the last three of his four starts, and his win in the Group 3 C S Hayes Stakes at Flemington has thrust him into the picture for the Group 1 Australian Guineas at the same course on March 1st. He is the current second favourite.

Sepals is the first winner and one of two foals for the New Zealand-bred What’s New.

That daughter of Casino Prince (Flying Spur) raced in Singapore where she was the champion four-year-old and champion older mare in 2019. Two of her six wins were in listed company at Kranji. This is a top-class family that had a brief spell at Bloomsbury Stud in England, and the ownership of Lady Tavistock.

What’s New is out of Pussycat Dream (Oasis Dream), and she won her only start in England, over six furlongs at two. She was bought to go back to New Zealand where her six foals have all raced, and five are winners. Pussycat Dreams’ grandam Good Faith (Straight Strike) was champion of her sex at two in New Zealand and won the Group 1 Sires’ Produce Stakes.