Westbury Stud stalwart Swiss Ace continues to be a reliable source of winners and the Group One-winning sprinter was again to the fore at the weekend.
His unbeaten son Domain Ace was an impressive juvenile stakes winner at Te Rapa on Saturday while Sabah Ace continued his march through the grades in Singapore with victory at Kranji on Sunday evening.
Swiss Ace’s genuine three-year-old daughter Race Ace also collected her third black-type placing when the Fraser Auret-trained filly finished a game third in the Listed Warstep Stakes (2000m) at Riccarton.
“Swiss Ace has had a great season and for an older sire he is still great bread and butter value and there’s no doubt he can match the better stallions, be it here, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore,” Westbury General Manager Russell Warwick said.
The winner of 12 races including the Gr.1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m), Swiss Ace retired to stud in 2010.
He took his tally to 19 individual stakes winners, headed by his Gr.1 Railway Stakes (1200m) winner Julius, when the Team Rogerson-trained Domain Ace followed up his debut win at Otaki with victory in the Listed Star Way Stakes (120m) at Te Rapa.
“Domain Ace is still very raw and it was only his second start and first one right-handed, so he’s got plenty going for him,” Warwick said.
Bred by stud owner Gerry Harvey, he is out of the Hussonet mare Internet whose half-brother Delago De Luxe was the champion juvenile colt of his year in South Africa and two-time Group One winner of the Golden Horse Casino Sprint and the Gold Medallion Stakes.
Internet has a yearling sister to Domain Ace and produced a colt by Reliable Man last year and is back in foal to Swiss Ace.
“We liked the mating with Swiss Ace, Hussonet has been a good broodmare sire, and the Reliable Man is a really nice colt as well,” Warwick said.
Domain Ace was offered at last year’s Magic Millions National Yearling Sale by Westbury and was knocked down to Rogerson for A$35,000.
He was subsequently passed in at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale later that year, with Rogerson remaining in the ownership group.
The stable went close to another black-type winner at Te Rapa where Westbury graduate Solidify, a son of Redwood, finished runner-up in the Gr.3 Championship Stakes (2100m).
Sabah Ace, who has now won six of his 13 starts from David Kok’s stable, was also bred by Harvey and purchased out of Westbury’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale draft at Karaka for $50,000.
He is a son of the late Danehill mare Show Exhibit, whose last foal is an unraced two-year-old son of Tarzino.
“Sabah Ace is quite an impressive type, a big and robust sort of horse, and that was the first time on Sunday that he had been out to a mile. It was a good effort as that’s probably at the end of his distance range,” Warwick said.
Swiss Ace’s associate sire Tarzino also emphasised his versatility when he chipped in with a winning trans-Tasman weekend double at opposing ends of the distance spectrum.
His son Star Ballot, another Westbury graduate, posted his fifth career success at Riccarton for trainers Michael and Matthew Pitman while Pretty Tavi added a third victory to her record at Bendigo.
“It was quite amazing, Star Ballot won over 2600m and Pretty Tavi won over 1100m for the Freedmans (Anthony and Sam), so she’s quite sharp,” Warwick said.
“The racing has been pretty good to us this year, we’ve had half a-dozen stakes winners or so and we’re hopefully looking forward to one or two more before the season closes.”
