Tough and speedy, Unencumbered had a further four starts before the end of the year winning three of them and earning a shot at the lucrative $2million Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast.
He duly won this prestigious race for his young trainer with the much loved and missed Nathan Berry in the saddle and a big team of adoring owners looking on.
Fast forward two years and the first foals are being born for Unencumbered, who embarked on a stud career in Victoria at Three Bridges Thoroughbreds where he has been very popular at a fee of $13,200.
Below are some of his gorgeous babes that have been impressing breeders this spring.
Unencumbered filly from Song of the Sun, whose Snitzel colt was sold by Three
Bridges at Magic Millions this year for $675,000 to Peter Moody. Named Epic
Moment, he's closely related to superstars Black Caviar and All Too Hard.
Unencumbered filly from Los Feliz
Unencumbered colt from Hypatia, who is another mare from the Black Caviar family.
Unencumbered colt from Live in Black
Unencumbered filly from Lilly in Love
Unencumbered filly from Faith Firebird
Spring is well and truly sprung at Three Bridges with a spate of recent winners emerging from the Liston family owned and run farm in the last month including the likes of Exclusive Lass, Mr Individual, Doc Holliday, Cazonet and Dorf Command.
The stud's foundation sire Stryker has also been busy since the start of the
new season with winners such as Strykum, She is Stryking, Rangipo, Ropeadope
and Stryking Gold.Looming on the horizon are the next crop of two year-olds from Three Bridges with several yearling purchases from earlier this year set to kick off their racing careers this weekend.
Candela (2f Stryker x Recurring, $100,000 Magic Millions) is an acceptor in the Listed ATC Gimcrack Stakes at Randwick on Saturday for John Thompson and the Matthew Smith trained One Stryke (2c Stryker x Pintle, $100,000 Inglis Premier) is to run in the Listed ATC Breeders Plate.
Also an acceptor for the first two year-old race of the season in Adelaide is the Tony McEvoy trained gelding Mr Markou (2g Stryker x Live in Black, $165,000 Magic Millions).
"Mr Markou, Candela and One Stryke were the most expensive yearlings for Stryker at the sales this year so it's really satisfying to see they've pleased their trainers and have shown good early ability to get up and running for their owners," Toby Liston added.
