A Super Bowl trip two years in the making has come to fruition for the trainer and owners of New Zealand-bred Gr.1 Victoria Oaks (2500m) winner Miami Bound (NZ) (Reliable Man).
The group, led by Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Danny O’Brien, purchased Miami Bound out of Westbury Stud’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft for $120,000.
The group had previously been to the Super Bowl in 2018 and decided they would make a return to the event in Miami in 2020 and named their newly acquired filly in honour of that trip.
O’Brien said he wasn’t on that initial trip but highly enjoyed attending this year’s Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20.
“I have never been before, but a couple of the owners in Miami Bound went a couple of years ago when it was on in Minnesota. They loved the game but it was freezing cold,” he said.
“They said they wanted to go back when it was on somewhere warm, hence when it was on in Miami they booked and we named the horse Miami Bound and it came together well.”
Miami Bound had a memorable spring campaign, winning the Oaks and Gr.2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m) and placed in the G.2 Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m).
O’Brien returned to Karaka last week where he purchased five yearlings in the Book 1 session of New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale before heading on to America where he witnessed the result he was after.
“I was in New Zealand last week for the sales and flew straight from Auckland to Los Angeles and then to here (Miami),” O’Brien said.
“It’s a complete change of pace, it’s a bucket list experience and the atmosphere at the Super Bowl was incredible.
“I was with the Chiefs, I had my Patrick Mahomes jumper on.”
While O’Brien and his group of owners enjoyed their Super Bowl experience, they are now looking forward to the resumption of Miami Bound ahead of her autumn campaign in Sydney.
“We are hoping to have her at Caulfield on Blue Diamond day in the Autumn Classic (Gr.2, 1800m),” O’Brien said.
“We’ll kick-off there and maybe run one more time in Melbourne before she heads up to Sydney for the Vinery (Gr.1, 2000m) and then the Oaks (Gr.1, 2400m).
