Ringo: Fitting the Mould

In it's short history, the Group 2 Couplands Mile has uncovered some serious weight for age talent. Ringo (Fastnet Rock - Akris by Zabeel) a leading contender for this years event has shown in just five career starts that he is developing a similar profile to the likes of Wall Street and Nashville, who both scored their breakthrough win in the Riccarton feature before going onto Group 1 WFA success.

Although to the naked eye in his most recent start, the 1400m rating 75 on the last day of the recent Hawkes Bay Spring Carnival, Ringo looked a tad dour, the rangy four-year-old only ever does what he needs to win and was going away again towards the line. Add the fact he carried clear topweight of 60.5kgs; had not started for five weeks, and the true merit of the performance becomes clearer.

On type Ringo resembles the 2009 Kitt Ormond Spring Classic winner Wall Street at the same age and the similarities don't stop there.

Wall Street first came to prominence during the 2008 Hawkes Bay Spring Carnival winning on all three days before going onto win the Couplands Mile, while Ringo with a bit better luck from the weather gods should conceivably be unbeaten in three starts on the Hastings circuit. A winner over 1600m on Hawkes Bay Cup day earlier this year, he was a gallant second fresh-up over 1400m on the first day of this years carnival on a heavy 10 track.

As far as styles of racing are concerned Ringo has yet to display the same turn of foot as Wall Street and Nashville can produce. Whether this counts against him at Christchurch over 1600m remains to be seen and his best chance of success may lie in him drawing sufficiently well enough to sit close to the speed from where he will be hard to run down with his low weight.

Wall Street developed significantly physically from a four-year-old to a five-year-old when he won the Spring Classic. Ringo will need to do the same if he is to step to the next level of WFA racing.

With natural strengthening Ringo looks a leading contender for next season's Spring Classic. He won't win it running sub 34 last 600ms like Excellent and Princess Coup, neither is he likely to suddenly inherit the push button speed of Jimmy Choux or Cent Home, for he looks more in the tough, relentless combatant mode of a Distinctly Secret or The Message. 





  

Royal Academy: Don't Put it Past Him

Last weekends results at Hastings and Flemington highlighted the influence Royal Academy (Nijinsky - Crimson Saint by Crimson Satan) continues to exert in black-type races despite being retired from stallion service in 2009.

At Hastings, he came within a nose of claiming a unique double as a broodmare stallion when Nashville (Darci Brahma - Royal Kiss by Royal Academy) was touched out on the line in the 2000m Group 1 Turks Spring Classic. Two hours earlier at the same venue, Sir Andrew (Sir Percy - Biennale by Royal Academy)won the semi-classic 1400m Group 2 Hawkes Bay Guineas.

The same afternoon his four-year-old daughter Molto Bene (Royal Academy - Benevolent by Generous)produced an outstanding last 200m to land the 1410m Listed Headquarters Stakes at Flemington. A beaten favourite in last seasons Group 1 MRC 1000 Guineas, Molto Bene is one of eight live foals from her sire's final crop.

Rightly or wrongly sire sons of Nijinsky were often criticised as being slightly coarse on type and there was corresponding opinions that the great racehorse, despite a successful stallion career, was largely unable to transmit his own speed and verve through his sons and grandsons. An outstanding physical type, Royal Academy flew directly in the face of such perceptions with an ability to transmit the same speed and class he displayed when winning the July Cup and Breeders Cup Mile into his stock.

As the damsire of the champion stallion Fastnet Rock and having his son Bel Esprit sire the immortal Black Caviar, Royal Academy's greatness in these parts is forever assured, however if there is ever a stallion capable of leaving a further legacy despite reducing representation, it is the unique Royal Academy.