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46.
First Stakes-Winner For Knowledge
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11/05/2002 |
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Queensland based stallions have been having a wonderful time of it lately in two-year old races. Willowbend Stud’s Clang has a seemingly unassailable lead on the Two-Year Old Sires List while Oaklands Stud’s Lion Hunter is almost certainly assured of carrying off first season sires honours.
KNOWLEDGE - the former Blue Diamond Stakes winner sired his first stakes
winner when Tequila Knowledge was successful in the Ken Russell Memorial. (LR)
Glen Avon Lodge has joined the action with the win of tenacious two-year old filly Tequila Knowledge in the Ken Russell Memorial (LR) at the Gold Coast today. The Mike Moroney-trained filly credited her sire, the former Blue Diamond Stakes (G1) winner Knowledge, with his first stakes-winner.
The win will prove a timely boost for Glen Avon Lodge who secured Knowledge after the untimely death of the highly promising Just Awesome, like Knowledge a son of Last Tycoon.
Tequila Knowledge has only faced the starter three times for 2 wins and a second for earnings of over $71,000. She is another example of not only Mike Moroney’s unquestioned talent as a trainer but also the ability of his brother Paul, who owns 30% of Tequila Knowledge, to spot a bargain at the yearling sales.
A $40,000 purchase at the 2001 Magic Millions Sale, Tequila Knowledge becomes the first stakes winner for not only her sire but also her 18-year old dam, Lequilla. Tequila Knowledge is the 11th foal and the seventh winner for the imported Lequilla who failed to run a place in her racetrack career but is a daughter of champion racehorse and sire Mill Reef out of the Sir Gaylord mare Mariella, top-weighted filly on the 1980 Italian Free Handicap after winning three races including the Premio Roma (G1).
Previous to Tequila Knowledge the best-performed foal from Lequilla was the stakes-placed Dorsal (Zeditave). A $10,000 yearling sales purchase by Barbara Joseph, Dorsel won 10 of his 52 starts, placing in 17 other including a third in the Canberra Cup for earnings of over $179,000.
The Group One QTC Sires' Produce Stakes to run at Eagle Farm on June 1 is shaping as the immediate target for Tequila Knowledge. "She was on trial for the Sires' Produce today and we'll see how she comes through this race but I'd say she'll run in it now," Paul Moroney told AAP. "It was the first time she's gone right-handed and it's the first time she's seen the fence," Moroney said. "We'll see after the Sires' whether she runs in the T J Smith but I'd say she'll be better spring and the Thousand Guineas is the race we're looking at back in Melbourne."
One of the big beneficiaries of Tequila Knowledge’s stakes victory could be Mr. B Rickard of Queensland who purchased the filly’s weanling full-brother at the recent Easter Weanling Sale for only $2,000. Considering that an unraced three-year old Grand Lodge colt out of Lequilla sold for $190,000 at the 2000 Magic Millions sale this colt has the potential to be a most profitable pinhook.
By: Mark Smith - Saturday, 11 May 2002
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