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Clarken Racing | Clarken Racing News 58369 Lucky In Line For Goodwood Honours

Lucky in line for Goodwood honours

Lucky in line for Goodwood honours

Training partners Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea will chase a hometown first when they saddle Extremely Lucky in The Goodwood at Morphettville.

After starting his career in Adelaide, Extremely Lucky will be having his second run back for Clarken and O’Shea in Saturday’s Group 1 sprint over 1200m after a stint in Sydney with Chris Waller.

Extremely Lucky won on debut for Clarken at Murray Bridge in December 2021, later on collecting the Listed Lightning Stakes (1050m) at Morphettville the following July and two starts later lined-up at Group 1 level.

After finishing last in that contest behind Coolangatta at Moonee Valley, Extremely Lucky was transferred into the care of Waller, but went winless in six starts, and was returned to South Australia to continue his career.

Clarken was emotional after Extremely Lucky scored a first-up win in the Group 3 John Hawkes Stakes (1100m) at Morphettville on April 27.

“He loved the horse always and when he got taken away from him, it was hard to swallow, so to get him back, and to get him back going well, it’s great,” O’Shea said.

“That was a good race and the race itself means a lot.”

O’Shea has been the co-trainer with Clarken for roughly 18 months and said Extremely Lucky was the best galloper in the stable.

“He’s the most quality horse that we’ve had, I think,” O’Shea said.

“He doesn’t have the best feet on him, so getting to the beach is good for him, but he has the potential to win something like this race one day.”

O’Shea said it was not ideal to be heading into a race like The Goodwood with just the one run back following a break.

The stable wanted to see how the sprinter came through his first-up run before a final decision was made on whether he starts.

“Will’s happy with him and the extra 100 metres won’t be a problem for him, but it’s going to be a different kettle of fish, a hard race,” O’Shea said.

“Ideally you wouldn’t be going into it second-up off a fresh-up run, but it’s hard not to have a go at it when it’s on your doorstep.

“He’s a quality horse and he beat some of the horses that will be in the market, so I suppose you have to have some hope for him.”

Story from Just Horse Racing

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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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‘Quality’ So You Think colt heads to Clarken and O’Shea

A week on from claiming Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 1200m) success with Silent Surrente (Fiorente), Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea secured a win in the sales ring when they went to $240,000 to secure a stunning colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) early on day one of selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale. Catalogued as Lot 25 and offered by Mill Park Stud, the colt is out of winning mare Miss Otto (Elusive Quality), making him a brother to Group 2 winner, and now Twin Hills Stud-based sire, Peltzer (So You Think). Bidding ringside at the Morphetville sales complex, the stable’s racing manager Lachie Weekley was thrilled to snare the colt, who was knocked down to Clarken Bloodstock in partnership with Suman Hedge Bloodstock and prominent South Australian businessman Rob Chapman. “He’s just got a lovely action and a really nice demeanour, beautiful head on him, great eye,” Weekley said.  “Very importantly he came off a terrific farm in Mill Park Stud down at Meningie, from Chris Watson and the team, their record is second to none and one of the best in the land.” The partnership, who purchased four lots at this sale last year for a combined total of $285,000, had to stay strong to win the colt, and plan to continue the momentum on the second day.  “We were right at [our limit on him]. We wanted to be pretty strong on him, obviously he’s a quality colt so we didn’t want to miss out and there was some good competition as always, with those nice horses. “The clients that we bought him for, they were keen to attempt to try and buy the best horse here and that’s what we saw him as. We did the job early and there’s a couple over the next day or two and that’ll be us.”  A close relation to 2019 Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1600m) winner So We Are (So You Think), Weekley said the colt will be given time to mature and develop.   “He’s just a lovely horse and we’ll give him a bit of time. He’d be more that sort of three-year-old type. We’ll just let the ball come on to the bat.” Mill Park finished the first day as the leading vendors by aggregate, having sold 12 yearlings for $1,031,000, the only vendor to break the million barrier. 

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