Femminile Gives Dundeel His First Female Group 1 Winner

It's taken a good deal of patience in more than one respect, but Dundeel (NZ) finally has a female group 1 winner to add to his collection after Femminile (AUS)'s stirring triumph in the May 3 South Australian Derby (G1). The group 1 win added further allure to Femminile's CV before she goes under the hammer at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale later this month. Cataloged as Lot 561, the filly is being offered as racing and breeding proposition by Newgate Farm. Dundeel—Arrowfield's outstanding 15-year-old who'll stand at an unchanged AU$88,000 (approx. US$56,592) this spring—has scored goals in several directions in a stud career looking every bit as glorious as the racing story that netted him six group 1s. Before Saturday, he had eight top-tier winners including current burgeoning sires in Arrowfield barnmate Castelvecchio (AUS) and Waikato Stud's Super Seth (AUS). Dundeel sealed his first top 10 finishes on Australia's general sires' standings in the past two seasons, ranking sixth and seventh, while he's also making early waves as a broodmare sire, with three stakes winners from 27 runners, at 11%, amid 13 winners. While his sons have statistically outperformed his daughters for most of his stud career, that picture has been changing—along with the perception that his often flighty fillies require more patience than his robust colts, perhaps as breeders better define the types of mares that suit him. Of Dundeel's eight Australasian stakes winners this season before Saturday, five had been female, in Konasana and Cinch, with two each, plus Mare of Mt Buller (AUS), Deel Her In, and Jasmin Rouge. Now he has six from nine and his first elite heroine after Phillip Stokes's Femminile became the second successive filly to win the South Australian Derby—after Coco Sun (AUS), a daughter of another Arrowfield sire in The Autumn Sun (AUS), scored in last year's race. Ridden by Lachie Neindorf and bearing OTI's colors, Femminile scored a corner-cutting victory which was a win for the bookmakers, starting at AU$19 after an only fair seventh in the Australasian Oaks (G1) a week earlier. Jumping from gate 2, she was allowed to settle at the back by Neindorf, but came on powerfully on the fence from 600 meters (about three furlongs) to improve to the leaders' heels before the home turn. Neindorf boldly shot her to the front as soon as heads were turned for home, past Victoria Derby (G1) winner Goldrush Guru (AUS), and she led by two lengths at 150 meters (about 1 1/2 furlongs). The gray Statuario emerged down the outside of the ruck with a powerful finish, the AU$3.40 favorite appearing likely for a moment to reel the filly in. But Femminile dug deep, showing staying power likely to be on display again amidst bigger targets in the spring, to win by three-quarters of a length. Arrowfield owner John Messara has long blown the trumpet of Dundeel's daughters. Some had come close to bearing the stallion elite laurels, with Hope In Your Heart, Aquacade and She's Ideal placed at the top level—She's Ideel three times. None had broken through until Saturday at Morphettville, but while Messara was delighted, for him it was more of an inevitability than a monkey off the back. "He can get as good a filly as he can get a colt," Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News.