A $70,000 purchase from the Mill Park draft at the 2009 Inglis Premier Yearling
Sale in Victoria, Fawkner (pictured Steve Hart) is the third Caulfield Cup winner raised at boutique
South Australian nursery Mill Park joining Southern Speed (2011) and Mummify
(2003)."We were at the farm last Saturday watching it on the TV and there was a lot of yelling and cheering when Fawkner started improving," said Chris Watson of Mill Park.
"The kids are deaf and so are the dogs! My voice has only just recovered!
"Before the race we were doing the form and I thought he had a chance and then you get to thinking, well potentially he might be our third Caulfield Cup winner, but you don't really believe that it will happen."
Happen it did.
And Fawkner has now added his name to an impressive honour roll of Group I winners that have been either bred, raised or sold by Mill Park including Happy Trails, Divine Madonna, Rebel Raider, Captain Sonador, Serious Speed and Devil Moon.
Boasting the consistent record of nine wins and six placings from 20 starts with prizemoney topping $2.4 million, Fawkner was bred by long time Mill Park client Steve Bennetts and is a half-brother to stakes-winning stayer Tanby (also purchased and raced by Lloyd Williams) and stakes-placed Viking Star, being one of four winners from four foals to race for the good producer Dane Belltar.
A Group III winner by Danewin, Dane Belltar was a top class filly, placing in no fewer than three Group I Oaks events, so her success at stud should come as no surprise.
Mr Bennetts now breeds from Dane Belltar in partnership with Mill Park and the
mare has a yearling filly by Starcraft and recently produced a lovely filly by
English Derby winner New Approach (IRE)."The Starcraft filly is magnificent and has been entered for Inglis Easter next year," Watson said.
"She has the scope and quality you would expect to see and is probably a bit more forward and mature than Dane Belltar's other foals.
"The latest filly by New Approach was born at Segenhoe under the watchful eye of Royston Murphy, who does a great job for us in foaling down the mares based in the Hunter Valley.
"She's a lovely filly and is very typical of the rest of the family in being all legs at this age."
Sire of the recent Group I MRC Caulfield Guineas winner is Street Cry (IRE), who stands at a fee of $110,000 and has been chosen as the next partner for Dane Belltar.
"We started off being quite conservative with the stallions chosen for Dane Belltar, but as she's developed into such a good broodmare, we've decided to open the coffers a bit and Street Cry is a step up for her," said Watson.
"He's a stallion we really like and he has some outstanding crops of young horses coming through so it's onwards and upwards.
"Also with Street Cry being a bit of an outcross, if she had a filly to him it would be very appealing to keep a mare by him to go on with.
"We already have a very good daughter of his in Group II winner Midnight Martini, who has gone to stud this spring and been covered by All Too Hard."
