Smart three-year-old filly Coeur Volante made it back-to-back stakes victories when running out a resounding winner of the Gr.2 Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday.
The Michael Moroney-trained daughter of Proisir had been a stunning winner of the Gr.3 Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at The Valley at her previous outing and proved she was something special in overcoming the outside barrier (14) to win stylishly.
The Gr.1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield next month is her next target, with Fairdale Stud principal Duncan Fell nervously awaiting the possibility of a valuable Group One victory for his mare Shanina, the dam of Coeur Volante.
Bred by the Fell family and prepared for the Book 1 Yearling Sale at Karaka in 2022 by Kelly Van Dyk at Prima Park, Coeur Volante is the younger half-sister of stakes placed filly Hasstobemagic and comes from a family that includes multiple Australian Group Two winner Rose O’ War and outstanding racemare Savanna City, who included the Gr.1 AJC Oaks (2400m) amongst her eight career victories.
Fell said the plan to breed some size and strength into the progeny of Shanina, a five-race winning Testa Rossa mare, was at the forefront of his thinking when he chose Rich Hill Stud stallion Proisir as her suitor back in 2019.
“We are a shareholder in Proisir so we wanted to support him as best we could,” Fell said.
“I thought he was an excellent physical match for Shanina, who tends to produce smaller foals, so the plan was to try and add some size to her progeny.
“Coeur Volante isn’t that big, but she is nicely put together and on the evidence so far it looks like we made a pretty good decision.
“She was a lovely foal and did really well here at home.
“We sent her to Kelly Van Dyk at Prima Park to get her ready for the yearling sale at Karaka and she did a great job with her.
“The Moroneys purchased her for $90,000 and we knew she would get every chance from that stable.
“Once they sent her to Australia after a couple of trials here it gave us some confidence they thought she had ability and she has really kicked on, which is great for the mare and the family.”
Fell advised that Shanina is due to foal down in the next few weeks and he is looking forward to seeing what her mating with Waikato Stud’s fledgling stallion Noverre will produce.
“Shanina is in foal to Noverre and is due before the end of November,” he said.
“We are in two minds at present about whether we give her a late service after that or we let her miss this season and get her in foal again in 2024.
“By then we will have seen what Coeur Volante has done during the rest of the spring and in the autumn which is very exciting.
“I see her majority shareholder Rupert Legh is comparing her to one of his best horses in Tofane (multiple Group One winner). If she could get anywhere near what she achieved it would be something special, although I hate getting ahead of myself as we all know just how tough this game is.”
Coeur Volante is one of 14 individual stakes winners for her sire Proisir, who was New Zealand’s Champion sire for the first-time last season.