The 50-strong team who race Secret Spirit (Swiss Ace ex Spirit of Sandford, by Kilimanjaro) got a massive kick out of the filly being named Matamata’s Champion Two Year Old for the 2014-2015 Season.
When you take into consideration the sheer number of juveniles trained in Matamata from that same crop, not to mention what some of them cost, it makes this award very significant and very satisfying for all of us who are involved.
I’m not sure how many juveniles ran around the Matamata training centre last season, but I suspect it exceeded 150. Bear in mind that many of them cost tens of thousands and some of them cost hundreds of thousands.
Secret Spirit is a modest homebred who didn’t go to a sale, so to rise to the top of a pretty fashionable tree is enormous!
Fact file on Secret Spirit…
* Bred by Nearco Stud Ltd (Greg Tomlinson)
* Born and raised at Bradbury Farm (Casey & Michelle Dando)
* Broken in and agisted at Paul Pertab’s two Matamata farms
* Trained by Lance O’Sullivan & Andrew Scott
* Raced by the Challenge No.2 Syndicate
* Successful riders: Craig Grylls & Danielle Johnson
* Black Type wins to Date: 2015 Great Northern Foal Stakes-LR & 2015 Ryder Stakes-LR
* Next outing: Saturday’s O’Leary Stakes-LR (1200m) at Wanganui
Secret Spirit & Craig Grylls
Last night's Award for Champion Matamata 2YO