Stanley Wootton @ Bondi
Just when you think it’s all been written and said about Stanley Wootton something seminal happens to remind you of his enduring influence. The inaugural Bondi Stakes run at Royal Randwick on Saturday 26th October 2019 was the most recent shining example. No-one tells the tale quite like Brian Russell can. The following is taken from his latest ‘Australian Thoroughbred Review’ distributed to over 5000 online subscribers.
Featured Image: Stanley Wootton at ‘Baramul’ in 1964 fully resplendent in ‘Bombay Bloomers’ which would not have been out of place at Bondi Beach (Acknowledge ‘The Star Kingdom Story’ by Peter Pring; The Thoroughbred Press, Sydney)
Stanley Wootton family grabs new million dollar race
Like so many good horses of the years after World War 11, Kubrick, the Shooting to Win 3yo colt trained by Chris Waller for one of Australia’s most respected and successful syndicators, Denise Martin headed Star Thoroughbreds, who won the inaugural $1million Bondi Stakes, a 1600m race for 3yos run at Randwick on October 26, is from a family established on Baramul Stud, Widden Valley for Epsom England headquartered Aussie Stanley Wootton.
Deceased in 1986, Wootton was responsible for sending about 20 stallions to Australia for stud duties, the three most notable being Star Kingdom, Makarpura and Newtown Wonder. The greatest of them was Star Kingdom, the son of the Hyperion sire Stardust who became five times champion sire at the Baramul Stud in the Widden Valley in the ownership of Wootton, Reg Moses and Alfred Ellison. Ellison owned Baramul.
A lot of Star Kingdom’s success came through a collection of imported mares kept on Baramul for Wootton and producers between them of such top performers as Todman, Noholme, Biscay, Star of Heaven and Bletchingly .
Another of the Wootton imported mares was Expulsion, a modest English 2yo winner by the Nearco sire Infatuation who supplied nine winners out here, including a Biscay flyer called Selsey and her Bletchingly three-quarter sister Extradite.
A 1982 foal, Extradite became the principal lasting monument in the ownership of his Sydney based daughter Catherine Remond to Wootton’s contribution to racing excellence, a history which gained a new chapter when Kubrick won the Bondi.
Remond bred nine winners using Extradite, the best of them being Twiglet, a Twig Moss (Fr) winner of three stakes, including the G2 Edward Manifold at Flemington. Remond mated Twiglet 19 times for 13 foals, three of which won stakes, the Danehill brother and sister Fairy King Prawn (Hong Kong Horse of the Year twice, leading sprinter thrice, leading miler twice,12 wins, seven stakes, the first HK trained horse to win abroad, capturing a G1 sprint in Japan) and Crevette (three Listed wins inc VRC Red Roses).
A mating of Twiglet made by Remond with Barathea, a Widden Stud visitor by Sadler’s Wells, resulted in Easy Rocking, a leading sprinter whose efforts included wins in the VRC Salinger Stakes, AJC Challenge Stakes and STC Canterbury Stakes and seconds in the BTC Doomben10,000 and AJC San Domenico.
Retired to stud at the Turkington’s Wattle Brae Stud at Nobby, Darling Downs, Easy Rocking has been responsible for 329 winners (65.7%) including 12 SWs of 996 races and over $20m. Following the sale this year of Wattle Brae, Easy Rocking is covering at the Clear Mountain Fairview Stud, Greenmount, Qld.
Remond also bred a top performer out of Crevice in Cosmic Endeavour (7 wins, $1,447,280, two G1s, Canterbury Stakes and Qld Tatt’s Tiara) and using Twiglet’s half-sister Fortunata (Dr Grace Sydney winner, Listed second twice) a Redoute’s Choice Listed Stakes winner, Chic Choice.
Alcatraz, a non-winning three-quarter sister by Fastnet Rock to Chic Choice bred by P Webb, Mrs C Webb and Segenhoe Stud Pty Ltd and now breeding for Ross Ferris’s Two Bays Farm on the heel of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has brought new distinction to this Wootton family by supplying Kubrick as her first runner.
A$250,000 Inglis Melbourne yearling, this 3yo chestnut colt has contested seven races for three wins, two at two, a second in the JJ Atkins-G1 (2yo, 1600m) and a fourth in the ATC Run For The Rose-G2 (1600m). He is one of 17 winners in the first crop of Shooting to Win, a Caulfield Guineas and Stan Fox winner, Golden Rose and Randwick Guineas third located at Darley’s Kelvinside Stud, Aberdeen HV.
Shooting To Win is a year younger brother to the brilliantly performed and booming young sire Deep Field, a resident at Darley’s neighbour, Newgate Farm. A winner of five of eight starts, setter of a new 1100m record at Canterbury, Deep Field like Shooting To Win retired to stud in 2015 and in consequence his oldest are 3yos.
Deep Field made a huge impression with his first crop juveniles including 21 winners (2 SWs, 5 SPs) and is now the leading two crop sire numerically and second on earnings. Three of his winners are from mares by Fastnet Rock, sire of the dam Kubrick