Running a time faster than both the winners of the Group II Soliloquy Stakes and Open 1400m events, hugely impressive three-year-old Wild Night (Vanbrugh) announced his arrival in the top echelon of three-year-olds this season when winning the feature Gr.2 James & Annie Sarten Memorial Stakes (1400m) at Te Rapa on Saturday.
The winner of two of his three starts prior to the race, Wild Night looked a forlorn chance when in last position shortly after the field commenced the run home as Academy Award shot to a four-length lead.
However rider Craig Grylls brought Wild Night to the outside to make his run and with several huge bounds he strode into contention before finishing off resolutely to down Academy Award by three-quarters of a length.
Grylls was taken by the closing speed of his charge.
“He is a relaxed type of horse and they went fast enough where I had to niggle at him a little bit, but at the 600m he gathered up underneath me and gee he had a good turn of foot once he balanced up.
“He is a beautiful big horse altogether and when he gets to a mile or further, he is going to relish that”’ said Grylls.
Trained by Mark Walker for Team Te Akau, Wild Night continued the impressive performance by the stock of his sire Vanbrugh (Encosta De Lago), becoming the third individual stakes winner for the Windsor Park-based stallion in the space of just seven weeks.
Represented by just 11 runners to date in NZ this season, Vanbrugh now sits in second position on the Sires’ table however the stallion stallion has a big future given he has an ultra-impressive current stakes winners to runners ratio in NZ of 27%.Raced by the Te Akau Love To Party Partnership, Wild Night was purchased by Te Akau Racing supremo David Ellis for $50,000 from the Windsor Park Book 1 draft at Karaka in 2021.
Bred too by Windsor Park Stud, Wild Night is the fourth foal of the Falkirk mare Supreme and is the younger half-brother of Gr.2 Eclipse Stakes stakes winner Play That Song who also finished second in the 2020 Karaka Million 2YO and fourth in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes.
