Lucky Unicorn For Cambridge Stud

 
25 Mar 2007

Cambridge Stud has announced the purchase of one of the most impeccably-bred sons of champion sire Redoute's Choice to go to stud in
Australasia this year, Lucky Unicorn, straight off the racetrack.


Following a deal negotiated by Joe Walls and Brent Thomson of New Zealand Bloodstock, Lucky Unicorn is being syndicated among a number of leading

New Zealand
stud farms and breeders with Cambridge Stud owner Sir Patrick Hogan having the majority share-holding.


Lucky Unicorn was raced by one of
Hong Kong's most successful owners, Leung Kai Fai, who has retained an interest in the horse for his stud career and will send a number of his top mares to him this spring.


Leung also raced
Hong Kong champion Lucky Owners, winner of the Group 1 Hong Kong International Mile and Group 1 Hong Kong Derby.


Lucky Unicorn has the distinction of becoming the first son of champion sire Redoute's Choice, the heir apparent to his sire Danehill, to join the stallion roster at Cambridge Stud.


Lucky Unicorn's strong pedigree was a major appealing factor to Sir Patrick Hogan.


Redoute's Choice, the sire of 34 individual stakes winners and this season's crack Australian filly Miss

Finland
and New Zealand Derby winner Redoute's Dancer, is well known for siring speed.


Redoute's Choice, a four-times Group 1 winner during his racing career, is the current leading sire in

Australia
for the 2006/07 season. He won the Australian general sires' title last season.


Redoute's Choice has excelled as a sire of two-year-olds with quinellas in the Golden Slipper, Blue Diamond and a trifecta in the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast. But he has also had horses gone on as three and four-year-olds winning the Oakleigh Plate, Caulfield and Thousand Guineas, VRC Oaks and a placing in the Cox Plate. His best horses have included Miss Finland, Lotteria, God's Own, Snitzel, Stratum, Fashions Afield, Nadeem, Undoubtedly, Bradbury's Luck and Cheeky Choice.


Not only is he  a  champion sire but Redoute's Choice comes from one of the most prolific producing families of Gr I performers, namely that of Umatilla, Hurricane Sky, Al Mahal, Platinum Scissors who are among  12 individual stakes winners who have been produced by his first two dams.


Lucky Unicorn's dam, La Bamba, is a half-sister to the Group 1 winners Masked Party (12 wins) and Festal (8 wins) and is closely related to multiple Group 1 winner and Australian champion two-year-old  Dracula.


La Bamba's other foals include the

Melbourne
stakes-winner,

Provence
, who is also by Redoute's Choice.


La Bamba's sire, Last Tycoon, has made his mark as a champion sire and in

New Zealand
he is represented by two highly successful sire sons, O'Reilly and Towkay. Last Tycoon has also proved to be an outstanding sire of broodmares.


Lucky Unicorn has two daughters of successful broodmare producer Best In Show - namely Show Lady (through Redoute's Choice) and Sex Appeal (through La Bamba) - in his tabulated pedigree.


There are also two daughters of champion sire Lunchtime featuring in his pedigree. These are Jesmond Lass (through her sire Redoute's Choice) and Party (through his dam La Bamba).


Also bolstering Lucky Unicorn's mouth-watering pedigree is that there are two daughters of Buckpasser - Spring Adieu (grand-dam of Danehill) and Sex Appeal (both at top and bottom of pedigree).


Sire lines which figure in Lucky Unicorn's pedigree include Redoute's Choice, Last Tycoon, Danzig, Northern Dancer, Ribot, Buckpasser (twice), Canny Lady, Bletchingly, Biscay, Star Kingdom, Lunchtime (twice), Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Mill Reef and Never Bend.


"Pedigree wise they don't come much better than Lucky Unicorn," said Sir Patrick.


"He may not have won the Group races but I believe he does have a Group producing pedigree and I am very confident to give this horse every opportunity to prove himself as a successful sire," Sir Patrick said.


"There will be an enormous amount of mares in
Australasia that can be matched up with Lucky Unicorn to achieve a successful result."


"Cambridge Stud has many mares itself with the Sir Tristram/Zabeel blood which are ideal and as it is well proven that the Danehill and Redoute's Choice cross have succeeded in producing Group I winners out of the Sir Tristram line mares," he said.


Joe Walls, chairman of New Zealand Bloodstock, said Lucky Unicorn will be a significant addition to the

New Zealand
stallion ranks this year.


"He is a horse with a faultless temperament, very correct and good bone," Walls said. "His good looks and confirmation are certainly going to make a favourable impression with breeders when they inspect him," he said.


"He will provide an ideal cross for so many of

New Zealand
's broodmare population," Walls said.


Lucky Unicorn notched up five wins during a 15-start career, which concluded last weekend, with his wins coming over distances of 1000m, 1200m, 1400m and 1600m. He raced successfully in both
Hong Kong and

Australia
and amassed  stake earnings of HK$1.6 million and A$172,500.


Lucky Unicorn won his first three starts in
Hong Kong in brilliant fashion before transferring to the

Melbourne
stable of Tony Vasil.


Lucky Unicorn won the Listed Chester Manifold Stakes by two lengths at Sandown in January  and finished a good third in the Group 3 Carlyon Cup behind Group 1 winning Apache Cat who is among the favourites for the upcoming Doncaster Handicap.


Vasil said of Lucky Unicorn: "He's really well bred and achieved his goal of winning a stakes race in

Australia
before going to stud. He won the Chester Manifold Stakes with a lot of authority and I'm sure he's got an exciting future as a stallion."