Date posted January 18, 2010 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Pins,
Premium Updates,
Racing and BreedingMelbourne, Vic (Jan 18th, 2010) - The running of the Countdown to Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) held at Ellerslie over the weekend was hotly contested.
Icepin (Pins ex Ice Maiden by O’Reilly) drove home to get the better of Belles Fast (Fastnet Rock ex Cast Your Fate by Bletchingly) to score by a long head. The performance turned in by Icepin was big-hearted - considering he had worked hard to share the lead from a wide barrier to take the winner’s cheque and elvate his position in the ballot order for the Karaka Million.
Trained by Mark Walker, Icepin is owned by Herbie Dyke, who has had plenty to do with the Karaka Million since it’s inception in 2008 with Raid (Pins) running third for him in the inaugural event.
Dyke said post race, “I had three runners here today - it’s a great feeling winning a race at Ellerslie - the ultimate and I can’t wait to be on course again for the million dollar event “.
Icepin is similarly bred to Raid being by Pins out of an O’Reilly mare, a real Waikato Stud flavour in the cross and it was of course the Chittick family who sold Icepin at Karaka Premier last year for $40,000.
Lot 285 a colt by Pins (ex Ballymore Lass) to be offered at Karaka next month
Also the sire of Katie Lee, El Segundo, and Waikato, Pins is an established leading sire through Australasia and South East Asia and at Karaka 2010 he will be represented by 61 yearlings - Premier, Select, and Festival.
Five yearlings in the Premier Session represent the successful Pins/O’Reilly cross including a full sister to Raid (Lot 228), a colt out of a half-sister to Ugachaka and Country Rose (Lot 261), the first foal of stakes-winner Ballymore Lass (Lot 285), a half-brother to this season’s Listed Soliloquy Stakes winner Masquerade (Lot 374), and a filly from a full-sister to Group 1 Manikato Stakes and Group 1 Goodwood Handicap placed The Big Chill (Lot 411).
