First Winner In Australia For Frankel

Juddmonte stallion Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) who stands at Banstead Manor in Newmarket, was represented by his first winner in Australia on Tuesday when Merovee (Aus), a son of MGSW More Strawberries (Aus) (More Than Ready) broke his maiden at Newcastle. It was the colt's second start for Chris Waller since being purchased by the trainer as a yearling for A$1.6m at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale. Merovee finished sixth of 14 in a maiden at Newcastle over 1200m back in March and he showed the benefit of that experience on Tuesday as he angled three wide into the straight under Hugh Bowman before knuckling down in the last furlong to get the better of Legendofoz (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) by just under a length. His rider was impressed and commented, “I loved the way he dug deep over the last 100 metres because he had a fight on his hands. For an inexperienced horse, to fight like he did, was a very good sign.” Bowman also feels there is a lot more improvement to come and added, “To the eye to me he still looks immature physically and he's going to develop into a much nicer horse in time. I'll leave Chris [Waller] to manage him, he does a pretty good job of it.”

Merovee was conceived in England on Southern Hemisphere time when his breeder John Singleton shipped two mares to England to be covered by Frankel in his first season. The other mare, eight time Group 1 winner More Joyous (NZ) (More Than Ready) produced a filly named Woman (Aus) who is in training with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. She has yet to race but did run fourth and second in two barrier trials at Randwick in January.