A month out from the start of the summer yearling sale series, LA have had the good fortune and timing to produce another Group 1 winner from one of their Karaka drafts.
Beaten a short half head in last season’s Group 1 2000 Guineas and finishing third behind Prowess in the Karaka Million Classic, Desert Lightning (Pride of Dubai-Isstoora by High Chaparral) certainly had the credentials to break through at the top level, something he managed in style when landing the 1600m Group 1 TAB Classic on firm ground at Trentham on Saturday.
Bred by German based Kiwi breeder Wes Van Der Scheer, Desert Lightning cost trainers Dawn and Peter Williams $150k from LA’s 2021 Karaka Book 1 draft. The Pukekohe based husband and wife and training partnership purchased the strongly made colt for Barneswood Farm, Sarah Green, and Ger Beemsterboer.
Isstoora has been an inspired broodmare purchase for Wes. Since leaving Desert Lightning, the High Chaparral mare has produced the exciting Per Incanto 3YO Oak Hill, who won at Moonee Valley recently at his second start, followed by a Per Incanto colt who sold for $100k at last month’s NZB RTR Sale, then a Per Incanto yearling filly that is being retained, and she recently foaled this attractive Per Incanto colt.
Since 2018 LA have taken four Group 1 winners to the Karaka yearling sales, headlined by dual Australian Group 1 winner Roch N Horse. For good measure, the farm also co bred and sold 2000 Guineas runner-up Bourbonaire from it’s 2019 Book 1 draft.
LA also took a special interest in the spectacular win by the Written tycoon filly Captured By Love in the Group 2 Mode Technology Wakefield Challenge Stakes. The beautifully actioned filly is from a daughter of a mare LA sold to the late Steve Breem at Karaka in 2011, and its family are actively breeding up from, including the I Am Invincible mare Invincible Nature who recently had her first foal, a stunning daughter of Bivouac.
