Huge day for Rich Hill as Tokyo Tycoon and Prowess star on Karaka Million card

Rich Hill Stud celebrated a day to remember on Saturday as two of their stallions sired the winners of both the Karaka Million 2YO and Karaka Million 3YO Classic in the space of just 90 minutes at Pukekohe.

Second season sire Satono Aladdin struck first for the stud as Tokyo Tycoon maintained his unbeaten record with a stunning last-to-first success in the Karaka Million 2YO.

Bidding to give David Ellis's Te Akau Racing a seventh consecutive win in the NZ$1 million contest, the gelding jumped tardily from barrier 13 under Craig Zackey, forcing the jockey to ride for luck in the rear of the 14-runner field.

Sat on the inside in last place turning for home, Zackey angled his mount away from the rail to get a run down the centre of the track, however the pair looked to have far too much to do with around 300 metres left to run.

Let down under a hard drive from his rider, Tokyo Tycoon picked up impressively and breezed past long-time leader Ulanova, who faded slightly to finish fourth, and hold off all other challengers to come home a three-quarter length victor over Ethereal Star with a further length back to the winner’s stablemate Trobriand, who was chosen by retained rider Opie Bosson, in third.

“It’s more relief than anything,” winning trainer Mark Walker, who returned from Singapore last year to again head the Matamata Te Akau operation, said.

“I didn’t want to be the one that jinxed it after [former Te Akau head trainers] Steve Autridge and Jamie Richards did such a great job, and then after that Jamie on his own. It is very satisfying.”

Tokyo Tycoon was purchased for NZ$125,000 as a yearling by Te Akau principal Ellis in March last year at the Karaka Book 1 Sale out of the Rich Hill Stud draft.

Out of All About The Coin, a three-time winning daughter of Starcraft, he is a half-brother to dual winner Syd's Coin.

The win provided Satono Aladdin, who won Japan's highest-rated mile contest, the Yasuda Kinen in 2017, with his third stakes winner in New Zealand and Australia, and his second in the space of two months following Sacred Satono's victory in last month's Bonecrusher Stakes.

He now sits atop of the second season sires table on earnings ahead of last year's Champion First Season Sire Almanzor.

"It’s one of those days you dream of. We knew we were going there with good chances, but the two-year-old, he overcame the wide draw pretty well, he was sensational," Rich Hill Stud's managing director John Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"I think Satono Aladdin has one of the best pedigrees in Australasia, if you analyse it. He’s by Deep Impact, out of a Storm Cat mare, the second dam is by Fappiano, that’s the broodmare sire of Northern Meteor. The third dam is by Nijinsky, well that’s one of the best stallions ever. There are a lot of positives there.

"Many have said that we have to breed to Australian sires to get the speed horses. But I don’t think that’s necessarily true. He’s an interesting stallion. You wouldn’t have expected him to have sired such precocious horses that he has.

"Pentire was the same. His 16 Group 1 winners were all in Australasia, rather than Japan. He just suits our broodmare population.

"It’s pretty hard, it’s been an incredible day. This raceday has really developed into a bit of an iconic day in New Zealand. Everyone wants to have a runner here. It’s a mini Magic Millions. It’s got to rate right up there."

Rich Hill Stud will present a half-sister to Tokyo Tycoon by Vadamos at next week’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale at Karaka, catalogued as Lot 24 in the Book 1 Sale which commences on January 29. Satono Aladdin stands for a fee of NZ$12,500 (plus GST).

Thompson and co's day was to get even better just 90 minutes later when their flagship stallion Proisir all but sealed this season's sires' championship after his daughter Prowess landed the Karaka Million 3YO Classic in determined fashion.

The now four-time scorer headed into the contest slightly under the radar, despite winning the Auckland Guineas on New Year's Day, and was sent off a NZ$9.30 chance under Warren Kennedy.

Trained by the Cambridge-based partnership of Roger James and Robert Wellwood, the filly enjoyed a trouble-free passage in midfield before ranging up to long-time leader The Intimidator on the home turn.

Asked to go and seal the contest at the 400-metre marker, Prowess took over the lead and found plenty under her rider’s urgings to deny the Te Akau filly Wild Night by three-quarters of a length with a further half-length back to Desert Lightning in third. Favourite Legarto finished fourth, beaten two lengths by the winner.

Victory for Prowess cemented her sire's place atop of the New Zealand leading sire’s table by earnings, with the Group 1-placed Group 3 winner holding a massive NZ$1.4 million lead over nearest rival and last year's top sire Savabeel.

"We thought Prowess might be able to do it, but up against Legarto and those other horses. I don’t know what to say. If Legarto couldn’t win it I hoped one of the others could, and Prowess did it," Thompson said.

"I don’t want to go the early crow, but he’s going to be hard to peg back now he’s over a million in front at this stage. There was a lot riding on today for Proisir and he really has proven himself.

"People have got to remember, his fee started at NZ$7,000. He didn’t serve the best mares in the world and he’s upgraded those. There’s not many stallions that do that."

James and Wellwood went to NZ$230,000 to purchase Prowess out of Hallmark Stud’s 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft.

She is out of the Don Eduardo mare Donna Marie, making her a half-sister to the stakes-placed winner Ajay Tee and to winning siblings Diamond Ring and Prima Donna. Donna Marie has an unnamed yearling foal by El Roca but missed when again covered by Proisir in 2021.

Proisir will be represented by 49 yearlings across Books 1 and 2 at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales, including four colts out of stakes-producing dams in the first book. He stands for a fee of NZ$17,500 (plus GST).

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