3 minute read
Half-sister to leading Slipper chance to be offered at Inglis Easter.
The benefits to Coolmore of either Learning To Fly or Shinzo winning this Saturday's Golden Slipper are seemingly obvious.
For starters, the Group 1 major carries a $2.8 million winner's cheque, which would cover a few bags of chaff.
But a by-product of victory would be what it would means to Coolmore's massive breeding operation.
The Chris Waller-trained Shinzo would immediately become one of the most valuable stallion prospects in the country, being by Snitzel out of Samaready, while Learning To Fly would confirm her status as a dream first-season product of their star stallion Justify, who will return to Australia for the 2023 breeding season.
An extra benefit of Learning To Fly to winning would be the value it would add to a member of their draft at next month's Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Among the youngsters Coolmore is offering is a half-sister to the Annabel Neasham-trained filly.
The daughter of Pierro and Ennis Hill will be one of the sale's banner lots no matter what, but the spotlight will shine even more brightly upon her if she becomes the family's first Golden Slipper winner.
"She is typical of what the family produces," Tom Moore from the Coolmore marketing and nominations team said of the Pierro filly, who is Lot 117.
"She looks fast and she looks like she will go early.
"It is an incredible pedigree, one of the best in the Australian stud book, and it will only continue to get better and better."
Ennis Hill, a daughter of Fastnet Rock who won a Group 3 Chairman's Stakes at her second start, is out of the Stravinsky mare Hips Don't Lie, who won a Group 2 Reisling Stakes and has proven a quality Stakes producer.
First foal Burning Mountain didn't scale great heights, being a four-time winner on the provincial circuit, but second foal Lake Geneva was a Listed winner who placed in a Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond.
Irish Sea and Sia only had brief careers, but both won, and then came Ennis Hill, who was retired after just seven starts.
Memphis Rock is a four-time winner who placed in a Group 3 Breeders Stakes and Listed Merson Cooper Stakes, while Acrobat retired after one start – a brilliant win in the $500,000 Inglis Nursery – and now stands at Coolmore.
Hips Don't Lie's first seven foals were all by Fastnet Rock but after missing to him in 2018, she was sent to I Am Invincible and produced Humming, a filly who sold for $1.95m at Easter and has one win from just two starts.
"Hips Don't Lie has been an incredible mare for Coolmore and our partners in her," Moore said.
"It is a family that continues to produce high-class horses and all of them have speed and precocity, including Learning To Fly.
"Acrobat, the full brother to Ennis Hill, was an incredibly talented horse who was one of the favourites for the Golden Slipper when he sustained an injury that cut his career short.
"He was incredibly well supported at stud in his first season last year, covering roughly 190 mares and garnering the support of some great breeders.
"Lake Geneva was third in the Golden Slipper a few years ago, so let's hope her niece can go two better."
The Pierro filly is the third foal from Ennis Hill, whose first foal was a colt by American Pharoah now known as Royal Pharoah who has one placing from two starts. Last spring Ennis Hill gave birth to a filly by I Am Invincible before paying a visit to Snitzel.
Learning To Fly is one of two Golden Slipper fancies who have half-sisters being offered at the Easter Yearling Sale, which will be held on April 3 and 4.
On Day 2 Newgate Farm will offer a daughter of Snitzel and Sultry Feeling, the Encosta De Lago mare who produced King's Gambit after a meeting with I Am Invincible.
