Wisper A Secret - Photo Credit Dan Costello Photography
It was a remarkable weekend for Huntsville's progeny, achieving Group One victories within a 24-hour span in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The first to shine was the four-year-old son of Huntsville, Wisper A Secret, who scored his first Group One victory in one of Australia’s most prestigious three and four-year-old features, the $345,000 Group One Racing and Sports Rising Sun at Albion Park on Saturday night. The win gave trainer Chantal Turpin and her driver husband Pete McMullen the biggest win of their respective careers.
Out of a Panorama mare, Wisper A Secret has had 12 wins from just 27 starts to date. Despite narrowly missing out on a Group One title last year with a second-place finish in the Queensland Derby (G1), owner Doug Johnson declined a substantial $150,000 offer to the US for his Huntsville gelding a year ago and has proven to be a wise choice. Johnson's belief in Wisper A Secret's potential has undeniably paid off.
Next up, we witnessed the dominant victory of the three-year-old Huntsville colt, Legendary Hanover, who surged ahead at the halfway mark during Saturday's $650,000 Meadowlands Pace, asserting dominance thereafter and ultimately taking victory with the margin of 5-1/2 lengths in the one-mile feature for three-year-old pacers at the Meadowlands. His impressive performance broke the stakes record set back in 2014 with a remarkable 1:46.3 finish time, stamping it as the fastest Meadowlands Pace win in history. And also just 0.3 seconds off the world record time for the fastest three-year-old pacer, which is held by Confederate.
Out of a Well Said mare, Legendary Hanover was successful last week, winning an elimination of the Meadowlands Pace, granting his spot in the final where he ran a career-best time of 1:48.0 with an impressive :24.4 sprint home to go one better a week later and take out the final and break his personal best mile rate. Driven by James MacDonald and trained by Anthony Beaton, Legendary Hanover has four victories in seven starts this season. He has won 10 of 16 career races with 4 placings and earned $710,959 for owners Eric Good, West Wins Stable, and Mark Dumain.
Like father like son, Huntsville himself won the Meadowlands Pace back in 2017 with a mark of 1:47.4 that granted him the title of the fastest three-year-old of 2017 in the Northern Hemisphere. Huntsville is the sire of only one racing-age crop here in Australia, currently boasting an astonishing 90% winners-to-starters ratio. Huntsville has sired 81 individual winners from 90 individual starters, and his one racing-age crop has banked over $3,708,301 in earnings thus far in Australia. The remarkably high winners-to-starters ratio not only highlights Huntsville’s prowess but also sets a promising outlook for his future crops to come. In America, Huntsville is the current Leading Money Winning two-year-old sire and is sitting in the Top Three for the three-year-olds. With such a strong start to his siring career here in Australia, breeders, buyers, owners, and trainers should be taking note of Huntsville for the future.
Standing at Cobbitty Equine Farm for just $9,900 inc GST, plus the HRA Stallion Tax of 15%. Huntsville still has availability. Contact us today: Belinda 0417 066 481 or Megs 0419 901 994.
For more information please head to www.cobbittyequine.com.au
