Date posted November 30, 2009 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Racing and BreedingNew Zealand, (November 30, 2009) - The luck of the Irish was finally with Eileen Dubh (Storm Creek - Vingtaine by Centaine) at Levin on Friday where the gutsy filly picked up the Group 1 Levin Classic (1600m) after a tough display of grit and determination.
Fighting off the group winning filly St Germaine (Keeper - Selenium by Straight Strike) all the way down to the wire, Eileen Dubh proved too classy for the field of fifteen, the majority colts, including Group 1 winning two-year-old Kaaptan who set the pace in the race.
Trained to perfection by Irishman Francis Finnegan, who also races the filly with Waikato-based Irish vets Ronan Costello and Roison McQuillan, Eileen Dubh was offered by Soliloquy Lodge at Karaka’s 2008 Carnival Sale.
A direct descendent of Richard Moore’s Soliloquy (Sobig), Eileen Dubh is out of a half-sister to the Moore’s wonderful current racemare Culminate (Elnadim) who, besides winning the Group 1 Otaki-Maori WFA Stakes last season, is best known for her courageous second behind Typhoon Tracy in the Group 1 Coolmore Classic in Sydney in March.
Soliloquy, under the Haunui draft, will offer a Perfectly Ready half-sister to Eileen Dubh, Lot 791, at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2010 Select Yearling Sale.
Of the filly Soliloquy’s David Moore comments, “she is a good type of filly, typical of the family, with perhaps a tad more strength than Eileen Dubh at the same age being by Perfectly Ready”.
The filly will represent a wonderful opportunity for buyers to enter into the Soliloquy family, and, given she is a half to a Group 1 winner and out of a half to a Group 1 winner, she has plenty of residual worth.
