Fearless
It has been a heady few days for the China Horse Club’s U.S. racing operation which has carried over the momentum it closed 2020 with in early months of 2021. Some of the club’s more credentialled performers are starting to resurface with weighty aspirations for the season ahead and Fearless was the first to strike a significant blow when posting a slick win in the USD200,000 G2 WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes.
The enjoyment from that performance was redoubled when one of the Club’s pinup graduates from its breeding programme, Kimari, was a sublime performance to start the new year.
Fearless posted the most significant win of his career at his seasonal bow and did so in a race sponsored by the Club’s partner WinStar Farm. The bay settled off the speed once again and made a sweeping move going into the home corner under champion jockey Irad Ortiz, hitting the lead early in the straight before fending off the challenges of rivals. It was a performance that rightly has connections upbeat about the year ahead.
“It’s very nice [to win a race sponsored by WinStar Farm], but I’m happy for the horse. He’s a really neat horse. He’s very talented,” said Elliott Walden, CEO of WinStar Farm.
“It was a great job by Destin Heath (WinStar’s farm trainer) and our team at WinStar to get him ready after a long time off and then Todd does what Todd does. They come out running for him and [Fearless] ran a super race.”
Fearless has been sparingly raced with his weekend triumph his fourth win from only seven appearances. Unusually for the two high-profile breeding operations, he is a gelding.
“He’s a gelding, which is not typically what we do,” Walden added.
“He was a real character as a young horse. He didn’t want to train a whole lot. He was a big, heavy horse and gelding lightened him up.”
On the same day as Fearless franked his abilities, Kimari reiterated her undoubted talents. The mare, who has twice placed at the famed Royal Ascot meeting, and posted multiple domestic stakes wins stalked her rivals in the USD200,000 Spring Fever Stakes before powering away in the straight to win by more than four lengths. It was the fifth career win for the daughter of Cozze Up Lady from only nine career starts. Cozze Up Lady foaled down a well-made colt last month by boom sire Constitution.
The race results of Fearless and Kimari coincide with the recent sales of China Horse Club New Zealand’s racehorses Suffused and Unition. The two high-class three-year-olds will do their future racing in Hong Kong after sales were confirmed. Unition won at stakes level and Suffused was stakes placed and their sale represents positive returns for the Club.
“[Suffused and Unition] have both been high-class three-year-olds that weren’t quite up to the level of being stallion prospects, so when that happens, we are happy to trade them. They should do well in Hong Kong,” China Horse Club’s Michael Smith told New Zealand’s Racing News.
“We have about 10 horses in training in New Zealand and it’s been a great nursery for some of our thoroughbred talent over the years. In addition to Suffused and Unition, we’ve also had Grand Bouquet and Providenceprovides making an impact at stakes level this year and, of course, in the not so distant past, New Zealand provided us with Madison County who was Three-Year-Old of the Year and Queen of Diamonds who was joint Filly of the Year.
“We have a trio of smart three-year-old fillies to watch out for coming through in Providenceprovides, who runs in the Lowland Stakes on Wednesday, Holyhead, who will go to the Mufhasa Stakes this weekend and Oselta who is nearly a debut.”
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