Willow Park's Glenn Burrows has reported the safe arrival of one of this season's most eagerly anticipated foals, the full-sister to star filly Samantha Miss.
The filly, born yesterday morning, is by Redoute's Choice from the unraced Zabeel mare Milliyet, who was sent to the Arrowfield stallion last spring following the $1.5million achieved for Samantha Miss at the 2007 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
“Once we got $1.5m we had a bit of theirs to play with, so we thought we might as well go back there again,” Burrows said.
“She (Milliyet) had a glorious filly yesterday morning and it's a big relief to see everything is a-okay.
“She's a beautiful filly. She actually weighed a couple of kilos heavier than 'Sam' did when she was born.
“Temperament wise so far she's looking really good – she's got a bit more white on her face than 'Sam' - but we're absolutely delighted with her.
“(Milliyet) will go back to Redoute's Choice again this year. Once again,it's a bit of money, but the way it's panning out, I think it will be money well spent.”
Burrows made the initial recommendation to Milliyet's New Zealand based owners Garry and Lyn Witters, to send the mare to Redoute's Choice – the mating that brought us Samantha Miss.
“Redoute's Choice is a beautiful horse with size and scope,” Burrows said.
“Milliyet arrived here and was an immature Zabeel and didn't have a lot of scope to her and I really like the Zabeel-Redoute's Choice cross and physically I thought they would work out to be a very good match and lo and behold it did.”
Milliyet is one of four full-sisters, by Zabeel from the Bold Venture mare Foreign Copy, at Willow Park.
The others are Pravda, Zebizan and Al Bayan.
Burrows said of the nine horses Willow Park is preparing for next year's Easter Sale, three of them are from this family.
Milliyet and Al Bayan both have Anabaa fillies for sale, while Pravda has an Elvstroem colt set down for sale at the famed Newmarket complex.
Samantha Miss, who is trained by Kris Lees for owner Ron Croghan, will race next in the W.S. Cox Plate on October 25.
She is chasing a sixth consecutive win, with her record now standing at six wins – two at Group 1 level – in nine starts, for earnings just short of $1million.
