Ceylon lands Cape Blanco's second Winner Down Under

 
11 Oct 2016

 Hot on the heels of his first New Zealand winner, Galileo stallion Cape Blanco has landed his first winner in Australia.

 

The Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Ceylon followed a second placing at Pakenham on debut with a strong 1400m win at Cranbourne.

 

Busuttin was thrilled with the win and predicted a big future for the filly.

 

"She goes really well. She'll make a stakes filly at some stage," he said.

 

"The [Victorian] Oaks in Melbourne in the spring will come up a bit soon for her but she'll be ready to run a strong Oaks trip out in the autumn."

 

Ceylon, bred by Curraghmore Stud's Gordon Cunningham and Coolmore Stud's Michael Kirwan and Demi O'Byrne, will have her next start in Saturday week's Gr.2 Fillies Classic (1600m) at Moonee Valley on the undercard of the Gr.1 Cox Plate before tackling the Listed Curved TV Stakes (1800m) at Flemington on November 3.

 

"It was a good, solid win the other day. She did everything right and won - and won impressively," Busuttin said.

 

Ceylon is the sole Cape Blanco galloper in the Busuttin-Young stable at Cranbourne but Busuttin intends inspecting several of his progeny at the upcoming Ready To Run Sale of two-year-olds at Karaka.

 

"They are definitely on my shopping list," he said. 

 

Cape Blanco got off the mark with his New Zealand progeny when the Donna Logan and Chris Gibbs-trained Mongolian Sky deadheated for first at Ruakaka last month.

 

Logan had nothing but praise for the Cambridge Stud-conceived stock of Cape Blanco based on what she had in her stable.

 

"They are nice easy horses to work with. They are sensible and they look like they will get over ground. I certainly wouldn't be turning down the offer to train another one," she said.

 

Cape Blanco now has 59 winners worldwide and two from 12 runners in Australasia as trainers here take the patient approach with his stock.

 

In the United States, Look Who's Talking became Cape Blanco's first stakes winner, scoring in the Listed Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes over 1400m at Maryland last December.

 

Cambridge Stud boss Sir Patrick Hogan was delighted to see Cape Blanco continuing his promising start.

 

"I've got a lot of faith in this stallion. He's a beautifully-bred sire and he's got some quality young horses on the ground," Sir Patrick said.

 

"Trainers have been prepared to be patient with them and now it looks as though they are about to be rewarded. We might well see a new wave of Cape Blanco three-year-olds emerging as Classic contenders in the coming months."