Winner: Squamosa (Not a Single Doubt-Class Success)
Race: STC Run to the Rose Stakes G3 (1300m)
Sold for: $140,000
Sale: 2009 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale
Vendor: Arrowfield Stud (As Agent)
Buyer: Star Thoroughbreds
Earnings: $171,750
Owner(s): J Tan, Ms G Tan & Mrs G Wong
Trainer: Gai Waterhouse (Randwick)
Squamosa extended his unbeaten run to three when he led home a Magic Millions quinella result in today’s Group Three $125,950 Run to the Rose (1300m) at Rosehill.
Ridden perfectly on the speed by red hot apprentice Blake Spriggs, Squamosa kicked clear with a furlong to run and held out the previously unbeaten Masquerader to win by a half length.
Winning trainer Gai Waterhouse was delighted with the performance and said the colt was the horse to beat in the Group One $1 million Golden Rose in a fortnight.
“He is a terrific horse and he keeps improving,” Waterhouse beamed from the winner’s stall.
“He has speed from the gate and then a second turn of foot up the straight.”
Waterhouse described Spriggs as a “star – a genius like the horse.”
“He’s on track for the Golden Rose now and too right he’ll be hard to beat,” she added.
Spriggs, who hit the headlines recently when he won five races on a Sydney card, notched stakes win number two in the Group Three feature.
“When they came at him he really let down,” the apprentice commented. “He’s a nice horse.”
“It was great to be on him because Gai Waterhouse doesn’t usually put apprentices on in big races,” Spriggs added.
Squamosa, a graduate of Arrowfield Stud, was purchased by Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds for $140,000 at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
He’s already earned over $171,000 for his Malaysian based connections.
David Payne, who prepares the runner-up Masquerader, a National Horses in Training Sale purchase, was very happy with the run of his charge.
“They’ll meet on level terms next time,” Payne said. “It was an excellent run for his first run back.”
“He will be a couple of lengths better next time with fitness – so I’m very happy.”
Squamosa, a colt by former classy Magic Millions graduate and Not a Single Doubt, is a half brother to classy stablemate Flying Success.
They are both from the twice New Zealand stakes winning and Melbourne winning Success Express mare Class Success.
Further back it is the same family as international stakes winners including Vidor, Jo Knows, Semillon, Petite Fantasy and Desert Fantasy.
Not a Single Doubt, who won the Canonbury Stakes and placed in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic, had already been represented by no fewer than nine stakes performers with just two crops to race.
