Sometimes the genetic power of a good broodmare can be underplayed in an industry increasingly focused on stallion prowess however its significance wasn’t lost on the team at LA this week as a family started by Nancy Williams in the early 1930’s supplied a $1.7 million Zoustar yearling at the Sydney Easter Sale on Monday and ended with another winning performance from a most progressive sprinting mare.
The Zoustar colt, whose spectacular result was a record yearling price for LA, and last Saturday’s Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes winner Evaporate, are both descendants of the mare Haggada, who was owned by Sam’s grandmother Nancy Williams.
On Saturday at Riccarton, the LA bred Tikki (Per Incanto – Ivy Hall by Towkay) registered her seventh win from her last 11 starts when taking out the feature sprint. The five-year-old mare, who was an $11,000 purchase from the 2020 NZB Online National Weanling Sale, will now spell before targeting black-type races such as the Stewards and Pegasus Stakes in the spring.
Tikki has LA genes coursing through her as she also traces back to Haggada. Her dam sire Towkay, who did such sterling service at LA until his retirement in 2017, is having an excellent season as a broodmare sire, headlined by the high-class mare Legarto, with strong support from the Australian Group winner Belle Dételle and Dave and Deb Woodhouse’s genuine filly Connello. To top the weekend off for Haggada's family, the JML 3YO filly Donna Chiara (Belardo - Bellabaci) ran third in the CJC NZB insurance Stakes on Saturday. Bellabaci is a half sister to Belluci Babe's mother.
In other results, Per Incanto’s classy three-year-old Rue De Royale (Per Incanto-Urban Royale by Exceed and Excell) recorded his fifth stakes performance when finishing third in the Listed Bendigo Guineas, while domestically three-year-old filly Connello (Time Test-Ballieborough) was a typically game second in the Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes at Riccarton, her third stakes performance this season.
