Winner: Hollowlea (Hidden Dragon-Cabaret Girl)
Race: VRC Henry Bucks Best Dressed Stakes LR (1400m)
Sold for: $36,000
Sale: Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale
Vendor: Robyn Wise (As Agent)
Buyer: Kingsley Peach
Earnings: $108,475
Owner(s): KAJ & Mrs E Peach & T & Mrs RS O’Sullivan
Trainer(s): Terry & Karina O’Sullivan (Stawell)
Hollowlea made history and earned a crack at the Bill Stutt Stakes when he cleared away for a stylish win in the listed Henry Bucks Best Dressed Stakes (1400m) at Flemington today.
Prepared at Stawell by father-daughter training team Terry and Karina O’Sullivan, Hollowlea is the first stakes winner for his sire, exciting young Queensland sire Hidden Dragon.
With no fewer than 14 individual first crop winners, Hidden Dragon has made a brilliant star to his career as a sire at the Kruger family’s Lyndhurst Stud.
Having already sired the black type gallopers Obsidian Dragon (in Adelaide) and Steel Dragon (in Brisbane) it was at Australia’s most famous track of Flemington that Hidden Dragon’s maiden stakes success was achieved.
Hollowlea was able to make up for his last run when he cannoned into a fallen horse and parted company with his jockey Nicholas Hall.
But today, with a clearer run, the real Hollowlea was able to show his class with a one and three quarter length success.
Terry O’Sullivan gave his charge a good each way chance today and admitted to having a few dollars each way on him. He was thrilled with the $39 return on the tote.
“This little horse has never done a thing wrong,” he said. “He was unlucky the other day at Moonee Valley.”
“I was happy that Nick (Hall) wanted to stay with him (today) – he obviously thought he was going okay when he got tangled up with the faller.”
“There is always a bit of a question mark when they haven’t raced on the heavy (tracks) – but I always thought he would handle it. He seems to handle the soft ground at home.”
O’Sullivan said he was always comfortable watching the race – watching his three-year-old get a lovely run just behind the leaders.
“The barrier certainly makes a difference. They went pretty solid – they jumped out and ran it along and he got the perfect suck along behind which makes a big difference.”
Connections are tempted to step the gelding up in grade after winning at listed level today.
“We were up in the air after Moonee Valley,” O’Sullivan said. “I will have a talk to Nick – I’m not sure which way we will go.”
“Whether he will get any further is something. But he does race well at the Valley so perhaps a race like the Bill Stutt.”
“Whether or not he would be up to the (Caulfield) Guineas – you’d like to think so – but at this stage, provided he can get the mile, a race like the Bill Stutt could be within his grasp.”
The Group Two Bill Stutt Stakes, with a purse of $200,000, will be run at Moonee Valley on September 24.
Hollowlea is another bargain stakes winner purchased by as a yearling from a Magic Millions Yearling Sale by Kingsley Peach.
He and his wife Evelyn paid $36,000 for Hollowlea at last year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale. They race the classy youngster with Terry and Robyn O’Sullivan.
Hollowlea is the second stakes galloper produced by his dam, the Sydney winning Scenic mare Cabaret Girl.
As well as today’s stakes winner she is the dam of the twice Brisbane stakes placed and seven time winning Made of Gold mare Dance Girl Dance.
Cabaret Girl,who won three races to 1400 metres, is a full sister to the Caulfield stakes winner Panorama Heights.
Hidden Dragon is represented by five two-year-olds at October’s Magic Millions National Horses in Training Sale.
The cream of his latest yearling crop will also go under the hammer at the famous Gold Coast sales ring at sales between January and June.
