Mark Corcoran savoured a top-flight victory on the racetrack at Hastings and a few hours later the Grangewilliam Stud co-principal had further cause to celebrate.
Farm graduate Ladies Man, a son of resident stallion Zed, claimed top honours in the Gr.1 Livamol Classic (2040m) and a half-brother to the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) contender was subsequently welcomed at the Waitotara nursery.
“It was a brilliant day and a great result for Zed to get another Group One winner,” said Corcoran, who operates Grangewilliam with wife Jane.
Ladies Man is out of the Australian-bred Dehere mare Just Polite, who won eight races including the Gr.3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) and is also the dam of the Gr.1 Auckland Cup (3200m) winner Ladies First.
“Bernie Myers kindly gifted the mare to me a few years ago and honestly the mare is just amazing,” Corcoran said.
“She’s 24 now and last year foaled a Zed colt and he is a cracking type, often old mares leave little fine-boned foals, but he is a beauty and you wouldn’t see a better colt on the farm.
“She got straight back in foal first pop last September and foaled a colt by The Bold One a couple of hours after Ladies Man won the race.
“She’s just a mare that keeps herself in amazing condition and has a great constitution. I’m not sure what we’ll do now, I’ll have a think about it and maybe retire her.”
The Allan Sharrock-trained Ladies Man will now bid to continue Grangewilliam’s proud association with the Melbourne Cup.
“We’ve had two winners of the Cup off the farm with Doriemus and Verry Elleegant and they also won Caulfield Cups (Gr.1, 2400m), as did Silver Bounty,” Corcoran said.
“You never know, we might get another one, so it’s pretty exciting.”
Zed heads the Grangewilliam roster and Corcoran continues to be pleased with the response from breeders to the son of Zabeel.
“He’s really well and his fertility is still fantastic. I reckon he’ll serve around 50 mares this year, he served 60 last season so he won’t be too far short of that,” he said.
Associate stallions The Bold One, by Fastnet Rock, and Hinchinbrook’s son Derryn are also making their presences felt.
“The Bold One is going really well and obviously Bold Mac (Listed Rowley Mile winner) is flying the flag in Australia and Robbie Patterson has got a great line-up of them,” Corcoran said.
“The Fearless One, One Bold Cat and Mary Louise are all exciting gallopers and I think The Bold One and Derryn will have very good seasons.”
Derryn’s progeny is headed by the Listed Castletown Stakes (1200m) Sophmaze, Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) placegetter Mischief Managed and black type performer Channel Surfer.
He will also have an exciting representative in Melbourne following the sale of his three-year-old daughter Matawai.
She was successful at the first time of asking earlier this month at Taupo where she accounted for subsequent winner and Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) contender Mary Shan.
Matawai was prepared at Matamata by Darryn and Briar Weatherley and was subsequently purchased by clients of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr’s Cranbourne stable.