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Clarken Racing | Clarken Racing News 53058 Will Clarken Continues Hot Form As Agreeable Collects Murray Bridge Gold Cup

Will Clarken continues hot form as Agreeable collects Murray Bridge Gold Cup

Will Clarken continues hot form as Agreeable collects Murray Bridge Gold Cup
Will Clarken added another country cup to his trophy cabinet as Agreeable took advantage of a lovely run to break through for her first black-type victory in the Listed Murray Bridge Gold Cup (1600m) on Friday.

Fresh off winning the Balaklava Cup and Seymour Cup with Noname Lane in the last month, the Adelaide trainer continued his exceptional form as Agreeable ($6) hunted down the $5 favourite Lord Vladivostok in the dying stages.

The gates - and subsequent runs in transit - proved the difference, Kayla Crowther able to give Agreeable a cosy trip from barrier five while Todd Pannell and Lord Vladivostok were trapped four-deep throughout from stall 11.

It was a deserved change of luck for the five-year-old mare after having things go against her earlier in the prep, most notably when drawing the carpark as favourite in the Balaklava Cup last start.

Clarken was delighted with the outcome.

"We've only had her a short time and she's been costly on the punt for us but we've finally got her right," he said.

"Happy with Kayla there, she came and galloped her on Monday morning - I had to twist her arm to ride her rather than Zoulah - and thank god she did.

"She's got beautiful soft hands, got the horse out of the gate and got her into a lovely spot.

"She'd been an ultra-consistent horse for the Freedmans before coming here and really deserved a victory like that, it's going to really help her price tag."

For her part, Crowther admitted she didn't actually want to be in that spot in the run, but everything worked out nicely.

"I was buried on the fence there, which is where Will told me not to be - he said get her to the outside," she said.

"He just had her really spot on today, she travelled through the horses beautifully, she got out at a good time and she was really good late.

"I knew I had a lot of horse left, it was just whether I could pick him up in time."

RELEVANT NEWS

Clarken's filly set for Stakes test

Unbeaten filly Cicala will be thrown into the deep end at start number three, set to contest the Listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville at the end of July. The race, for two- and three-year-old gallopers, has been won by subsequent Group 1 winners Nature Strip and Viddora in previous years and Cicala's co-trainer Will Clarken has won two of the past four editions of the race. The daughter of Tamasa backed up her impressive debut win at Gawler by winning in equally as eye-catching fashion over 1100m in town last Saturday. "She's a very unassuming little filly," said Clarken, who trains in partnership with Niki O'Shea. "I saw her about a month ago and she looked a bit light, so we dropped her back to the farm and she's really strengthened. "Rochelle (Milnes, winning rider) galloped her last Tuesday and basically declared her, I wasn't as confident! But she rode her like that." The Lightning is run over 1050m and Clarken says the prospect of a wet track in the depths of winter will pose no issues for his emerging sprinting talent. "I think we'll go five weeks between runs," Clarken said. "She's a three-year-old filly and she gets through the mucky going, all you can do is win. "Ligthly raced, we know she gets through the ground, why not?" Story from Racing.com (Tim Yeatman)

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Keeping it in the family

Later in the day, a pair of lots sold for $200,000 respectively to secure their placings as the joint-second-top lots on the second day of trade. Lot 273, the first of the duo to go under the hammer, is a filly by Yulong’s Written Tycoon who sold to Ridgeport Holdings, Clarken Bloodstock, and Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA). The filly is out of Blue Morpho (Hussonet) who from 16 starts on the track managed three wins, including landing the 2018 Laelia Stakes (Listed, 1600m).  Clarken and his training partner Niki O’Shea know about the family, with the filly’s brother, the unraced Windrow, and her Alabama Express half-sister, who Clarken bought for $80,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2021, both residents of their Murray Bridge stable.  “The quality always makes money and there have been some really nice types and there’s been no doubt that they have been well received. We were narrowly beaten on the Zoustar filly [Lot 255] earlier today and we were lucky enough to get the Written Tycoon filly a second ago,” Will Clarken told ANZ Bloodstock News. “I’ve got her two relations who have shown great promise and haven’t been to the races yet. Written Tycoon has been a good stallion to the yard and we’ve got Kuroyanagi who was Group 1-placed in the Blue Diamond and it’s going to be for the same ownership group [Ridgeport].” “We’ve got four so far [on the day], we’ve been sent a few and I think there’s a couple more on the list for the rest of the day, but we really came here to buy what we thought was the best filly and the best colt and I think we’ve done that. “Adelaide has been a really happy hunting ground for us. We bought Beau Rossa here and he was narrowly beaten in a Group 1. I bought Galaxy Patch out of here, Prawn Baba and  both of them have run in a Hong Kong Derby [Galaxy Patch second in 2024] and I just know the sale and it’s been really good for us. “Let’s hope the Magic Millions lives on here in South Australia. Obviously there are some changes ahead, but it’s a great asset to have a sale in our backyard.”Story from ANZ Bloodstock News

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Peltzer's brother turns heads

Peltzer's brother will stay in South Australia and be trained by Will Clarken and Niki O'Shea after being bought for $240,000 in the opening session of Monday's Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Offered as part of leading SA nursery Mill Park Stud's draft, the colt (Lot 25) was on the shortlist of several good judges but was ultimately knocked down to Clarken's Racing Manager Lachie Weekley on behalf of the stable, owner Rob Chapman and bloodstock agent Suman Hedge. As well as leaving multiple Stakes winner and now young stallion Peltzer, who was purchased for $260,000 as a yearling, the colt's dam Miss Otto has also left Stakes-placed filly Madison Kate. Weekley said the stable targeted the colt and was buoyed by the record of Mill Park Stud, the property on SA's Limestone Coast which has bred or raised more than 20 Group 1 winners. "He's a beautiful colt, just a lovely, well-balanced horse," Weekley said. "He has a lovely So You Think head on him and he looks to have a lot of class. "You'd like to think he'd be that sort of miler type O like. "We tend not to rush our young horses, it's cliche to say but we'll give him plenty of time. "Mill Park Stud is such a fantastic nursery, Chris Watson and the team down there do such a good job and the stats are just phenomenal. "They've nearly got the alphabet of Stakes winners, which speaks for itself."   Story by James Tzaferis from Racing.com

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