Melted Shines

ANZ Bloodstock News - 1 June 2010

The John Sadler stable unveiled its latest smart prospect when Melted made an impressive public debut at Monday’s Cranbourne trials. Sadler is holding the fort at Romsey until Leon Corstens returns from a six-month drug suspension but Team Corstens has still managed to produce well-performed two-year-olds this season.

Melted is by Redoute’s Choice out of the New Zealand Group II winner Raspberry Ripple but failed to reach her reserve at the 2009 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

The filly’s breeder, Highgrove Stud’s Ron Gilbert, retained the juvenile and Melted showed she will pay her way with a narrow, but strong, trial win in the fastest two-year-old time of the morning.

Melted clocked 48.35 seconds to be nearly half a second quicker than the next best heat which was taken out by the Mick Pricetrained Bellantina in 48.72 seconds.

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Group 1 Newmarket winner Wanted retires to Stud

ANZ Bloodstock News - 13 April 2010

This season’s Newmarket Handicap winner Wanted has been retired after his unplaced run behind Melito in Saturday’s T J Smith Stakes (Gr 1) over 1200m at Randwick.

Trainer Peter Moody confirmed the retirement yesterday. “Luke (Nolen) felt he was really flat on Saturday and had probably come to the end of his preparation.
“The boys who own him decided he had done his job and it was time to let him go and be a stallion. The original plan was to take him to England but we couldn’t take him there on that run.”

Speaking on Sky Sports Radio in Sydney, Moody said Wanted was “100 per cent sound” following a vet’s examination on Monday morning. “We got the vet to have a look at him for peace of mind and he’s got a clean bill of health, Moody said, adding, “It’s time for him to go and do something else now.”

Wanted’s stud future is expected to be decided ‘in the next two or three days’ according to Moody. The son of Fastnet Rock was sold to Widden Stud in a deal purported to be worth $9 million after his fourth place finish in the Oakleigh Plate but that deal foundered when the placement of insurance was not possible.

“There was some doubt over the horse because he was (sic) a rig but that’s all sorted now and he has fertility insurance in place. There are people interested in the horse and I gather that things will be decided in the next two or three days.”

Bred by Ron Gilbert at his Highgrove Stud and owned by Sydney-based Eddie Hayson, Wanted sold for $800,000 as a yearling at the Easter Yearling Sale. He retires having won three of his 15 starts and placing in another six for earnings of more than $1,216,000 million in prizemoney.

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Downs behind Wanted's Newmarket

The Courier Mail - Nathan Exelby - 10 March 2010

WANTED’S win in Saturday’s Newmarket Handicap again underlined the fertile nurturing ground of the Darling Downs, says breeder Ron Gilbert.

Wanted was bred by Gilbert and raised at his Highgrove Stud just outside Toowoomba before being sold for $800,000 at the 2008 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in Sydney.

He follows Blue Diamond winner Star Witness as a Darling Downs-bred Group 1 winner in Melbourne this autumn.

“It’s quite amazing the horses that come off this country up here,” Gilbert said.

“Darling Downs horses have won just about every major race in Australia, including four Melbourne Cups, four Caulfield Cups, four Doncasters, a Cox Plate and all of the major Queensland races multiple times.”

Highgrove Stud has a very high strike rate in producing stakes winners, but Wanted’s win broke a frustrating drought in Group 1 races for Gilbert, with Porto Roca’s 2001 Coolmore Classic the most recent G1 success.

“It’s very satisfying,” Gilbert said. “Fravashi was unlucky not to win a Group 1 when he got injured (in the T.J. Smith), so I know they are very hard to win.”

Wanted’s dam Fragmentation last year produced a full brother to the Newmarket winner and she is in foal to Street Cry, sire of Shocking and Whobegotyou. She is also the dam of Golden Slipper-bound Shrapnel.

Wanted will stand at Widden Stud on retirement and Gilbert has taken a share in him.

“Of all the top sprinters he has been the most consistent. He has a very fast cruising speed and he can sustain that, as he showed on Saturday when he came away from them again at the end,” he said.

Wanted after his win of the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap

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