\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Trevor Marshallsea\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
Co-trainer Ben Hayes declared Shining Smile (Spirit Of Boom) had made a case for regard as Australia\u2019s best-performed two-year-old of the season after the durable colt brought up his fifth victory on Saturday at Flemington.<\/p>\n
Marhoona (Snitzel) might have won the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) as one of her two wins, and Devil Night (Extreme Choice) took the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) as his only win in three starts.<\/p>\n
But Shining Smile has now won his past five of seven \u2013 including three Melbourne Listeds in the autumn after being placed in that class and at Group 3 level in his first two starts.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he resumed impressively under handicap conditions, taking the VRC Member Sarah Hart Trophy (1000m) under 59.5 kilograms while giving between 3.5 kilograms and 5.5 kilograms to his eight rivals.<\/p>\n
Ridden by three-kilogram claimer Logan Bates and sent out a $3 favourite, Shining Smile settled on the neck of leader Yamashita\u2019s Gold (Wootton Bassett) under a middling early pace, before surging powerfully to the lead as the speed quickened inside the 400 metres.<\/p>\n
Fellow colt and $3.50 second-elect Oyster Lane (Blue Point), Ciaron Maher\u2019s third-starter under 55.5 kilograms, emerged along the rail to put up a contest over a tense final 200 metres, but Shining Smile gripped on tenaciously to score by 0.2 lengths. Phillip Stokes\u2019s Bold Secret (Brazen Beau) took third in a market trifecta as $4.80 third favourite, a further 0.7 lengths back.<\/p>\n
Queensland colt Cool Archie (Cool Aza Beel) could put up an argument against that mounted by Hayes for Shining Smile, having also won five on the bounce including three Brisbane stakes races \u2013 two Group 2s and the elite JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m).<\/p>\n
But Hayes made clear at Flemington he wouldn\u2019t swap his colt for any juvenile in the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done a great job today,\u201d Hayes said of Shining Smile, who was bred by retired Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)\u2013winning jockey Scott Seamer.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo give weight to all his competition like he did and be as tough as he was through the line was very exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s arguably the best-performed two-year-old of the year, albeit not in the big races \u2013 he\u2019s won three stakes races.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a tough horse and he loves a fight. We\u2019re really looking forward to seeing what he\u2019s got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he\u2019s resumed early with this mid-July appearance, the son of star Queensland sire Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) will be set for spring three-year-old highlights, likely including the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on November 1 also up the Flemington straight, where he\u2019s now won three times.<\/p>\n
With Shining Smile\u2019s races this campaign likely to be well spaced, his next assignment could be the Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Caulfield on August 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will tick him off beautifully to head to those really good early three-year-old races like the Vain,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a pretty good record down the straight, so he could be a horse we have for a race like the Coolmore \u2013 he\u2019s got to be right in a race like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shining Smile has been one of the leading lights in another strong season for Spirit Of Boom. Eureka Stud\u2019s flagbearer is 12th on the nation\u2019s two-year-old sires\u2019 table by earnings and winners, but with his best performer Shining Smile helping out with multiple victories, the stallion is equal-third on the score of juvenile wins, with 17.<\/p>\n
The rising 18-year-old Spirit Of Boom sits 19th on the Australian general sires\u2019 table \u2013 equal with his finishing position last year.<\/p>\n
Shining Smile (2 c Spirit Of Boom \u2013 Nataya Rose by Canny Lad) is the seventh and best foal of unraced mare Nataya Rose (Canny Lad), a half-sister to the stakes\u2013placed Gold Anthem (Made Of Gold), who achieved lasting fame as the dam of dual hemisphere Group 1 hero and current successful sire Starspangeledbanner (Choisir).<\/p>\n
Nataya Rose\u2019s colt by Zousain (Zoustar) was bought by Yulong from Robyn Wise\u2019s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft this year for $80,000. The mare now has a weanling colt by Profiteer (Capitalist) and was covered last spring by Darley\u2019s Pinatubo (Shamardal).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Trevor Marshallsea Listen Co-trainer Ben Hayes declared Shining Smile (Spirit Of Boom) had made a case for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-10196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}