Scenic Lodge played a hand in the first and last winners on the Ascot card yesterday and the Muchea stud made it three of a kind during the twilight meeting at Cranbourne.
Daryte claimed the first leg for trainer Trevor Andrews in the $80,000 Magic Millions Plate (1000m) and the brilliant debutante will now be set for the RL Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) at Pinjarra on February 14.
Daryte (2f Portland Sky – I’m In Love by Fastnet Rock) was sold by Scenic Lodge (as agent) for $55,000 at the 2025 Perth Magic Millions and she paid that back first-up with a huge pay-day looming in the $250,000 Classic next month.
Ascot debut winner Daryte (Photo / Western Racepix)
“We will go that way as long as she pulls up well,” Andrews said after her three-length victory over Farnova (Farnan) and Perfume Princess (King’s Legacy). “She’s a lovely, big, scopey filly and still quite new. A lead-up run over 1100m into the Millions would be ideal.”
Daryte is the first winner for Portland Sky (Deep Field) who was bred locally by Rob and Ann Anderson at Anita Vale Stud in Mardella. Portland Sky was a Group 1 winner of the 2021 Oakleigh Plate (1100m) at Caulfield before retiring to Widden Stud.
Willie Pike was more than impressed after bringing Daryte back to scale. “She has a lovely turn of foot and that was a bonus because she will only get better and better. Once I hit the go-button and guided her around the leader, the race was all over.”
Santanova nailed the second-leg for Scenic Lodge and Pike when she flew home for a win that mirrored her stunning first-up victory over the same course and distance in November.
“There’s not much of her but she carried 60kg today and gives 110%,” Pike explained after the Peters Investments Hcp (1000m). “She tries and tries as long as you don’t interfere and let her do what she wants.”
Santanova (4m Santos – Wild Ava by High Chaparral) was a $40,000 graduate out of the Scenic Lodge consignment to the 2023 Perth Magic Millions and Saturday’s result improved her record to 5 wins in 14 starts for earnings over $155,000.
Her dam Wild Ava was bred by Yarradale Stud before changing hands interstate for $90,000 at the 2015 Magic Millions 2YO Sale on the Gold Coast. Scenic Lodge manager Jeremy Smith bought her back to WA for a bargain-based $6,500 at an Inglis Digital Sale in 2021 and she has a yearling colt by Scenic Lodge sire Universal Ruler.
The Real Mahjong made it two-from-two for Universal Ruler with a dominant first-up performance in the Frankston Sand & Soil Mix Hcp (1300m) at Cranbourne on Saturday evening.
He was an on-pace debut winner at Seymour in September and was promptly put out to paddock by champion trainer Ciaron Maher. Despite drifting from $3.90 to $6, he always looked a winner with the addition of blinkers and was untroubled to defeat Vaderlee (Invader) and Jessup (Epaulette).
The Real Mahjong (3g Universal Ruler – Full Time by Blackfriars) was fresh going down to the gates but was a slow to begin for visiting Irish jockey Shane Foley. “I made sure he got a hurry-on and he travelled like a bird. He had a good look around into a headwind but felt like a progressive type in the straight.”
His dam Full Time was an unraced full-sister to Full Reign (LR Challenge Stakes) and Impact Rating (LR Boulder Cup) and her final foal is a yearling colt by Sessions bred by Krisman Park’s Phil Bruce in Dardanup.
Now rising 22, Universal Ruler (Scenic) has sired 226 individual winners at a 60% strike-rate and there are 44 colts and fillies in his current yearling crop. There are five of them entered for the Magic Millions Sale next month starting with the colt from Koonya (Nadeem) being offered by Scenic Lodge’s Caroline Gammage as Lot 200.
