The Group I success of Northern Hemisphere bred mares Lighthouse (USA) and Con Te Partiro (USA) has highlighted the potential of bringing talented older mares to race in Australia for our rich prizemoney and Black Type with a trial winner at Warwick Farm on Monday appealing as a mare to fit the profile.
Carrying the Newgate Farm colours, the Annabel Neasham trained Nimbostratus (Fr) was having her second trial in Australia and showed good speed to lead for James McDonald and kept up a good gallop to the line to win by a head held together.
A four year-old daughter of Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett, Nimbostratus had 11 starts in the Northern Hemisphere for three wins in Ireland and the US, where she won twice at Santa Anita and was also Group III placed.
She was originally destined to for a stud career in Australia having been covered last year by Frankel, but is now seeking further success on the track, a recipe that worked previously for Newgate with Con Te Partiro.
She famously missed to Zoustar in the spring of 2019 and was returned to the stables of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott going on to win both the Group I ATC Coolmore Classic and Coolmore Legacy.
Nibostratus comes from a prolific Black Type female family with her third dam Luv Luvin’ spawning an impressive dynasty of international Group I winners that includes Dolphin Street, Saffron Walden, Insight, Stormy Liberal, Beethoven, Listen, Sequoya, Henrythenavigator and Magician.
Her sire Wootton Bassett is likely to become an influential sire for Australasia given his warm reception at Coolmore Australia last spring where he covered 188 mares at a fee of $71,500.
A Group I winning son of Iffraaj, Wootton Bassett has sired 27 stakes-winners worldwide including his Champion 3YO Almanzor (Fr), whose first crop of NZ bred two year-olds are showing great promise.
The Ifraaj sireline produced the quinella in the Group I Sistema Stakes for two year-olds in New Zealand on Sunday with the winner Lickety Split by Ifraaj’s Group I winning son Turn Me Loose and the runner-up Karaka Millions winner Dynastic by Almanzor. Read about them here.
