Zoffala winning at Murray Bridge Our Owner of the Month award winner for July is Jeff Gould part owner of Zoffala, Jeff provided this note about Zoffala and his racing journey: About 5 years ago I purchased a share in Zoffala with a few mates, we punt on Saturdays at the pub. He was one of Tony McEvoy’s sales buys. He showed good staying ability from the start. He has given us lots of fun and we have hopes for more to come. Zoffala’s success has enabled the purchase of shares in two more hopefuls, a Tavistock gelding Tavabeel, we have high hopes for, he is also trained by Tony McEvoy and a Winning Rupert gelding, Mystic Galaxy trained by Travis Doudle. My first venture into horse racing was when I was 21. With a couple of mates from our footy club we purchased a horse called Hartbalm. He was a very speedy horse and won an Oakleigh Plate and other good races in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. You can see why I was hooked after that. I had a hiatus from racing in between due to health reasons. What a start to a racehorse ownership venture to pick up a share in Hartbalm, the My Heart stallion won, as Jeff says, the Oakleigh Plate, and also the Spring Stakes in Adelaide and the H.G. Bolton International in Perth. The Bolton is now a listed race; the Spring Stakes a Group 3 and the Oakleigh Plate is of course is Group 1. Hartbalm went on to have a short five year career at stud and left the multiple stakes winner Princely Heart who included the Group 1 Galaxy amongst his wins. It was a long time between drinks for Jeff but Zoffala has proved be a very handy return for Jeff to the ownership ranks. He has now won four races from 17 and amassed earnings of over $110,000. The Zoffany gelding is out of a Woodman mare Woodala winner of six from 34 and earnings of over $180,000. At stud Woodala has left only one other top performer River Rubicon by Rubick who has won five of nine and earned $220,000. Unlike Zoffala who is staying bred, River Rubicon’s wins have been over sprint distances. The second dam Darmala (by Danehill) who has produced nothing of note. The third dam Rosecay (by Marscay) is a different story having left four times stakes winner Majestically (by Maroof). Majestically won up to Group 3 level and in total won 10 races with another 17 minor placings to earn a touch more than $675,000. Rosecay spent several years at stud in New Zealand where both Majestically and Darmala were born. Her other progeny include Triattica (by Centaine) dam of a three times stakes winner in Demerger (by Saithor) who included an Adelaide Cup amongst his successes as well as the Dylan Thomas gelding Sir Dylan a perennial placegetter who had the one win but added eight seconds and 16 thirds to earn just over $80,000 from fifty starts. Jeff’s new acquistions are Tavabeel, who is by Tavistock out of a Zabeel mare Jessabeel, he has already won one from six and is obviously bred to get a journey. On the other hand, Mystic Galaxy is by Winning Rupert out of the Fastnet Rock mare Andromeda who is also dam of the handy Japery (by Sizzling). We wish Jeff the best with all three horses.

Smiling Assassin winning at Morphettville Our Owner of the Month award winners for June are Wendy and Brian Daken, owners of Smiling Assassin. We talked to Wendy about their involvement in racing and about Smiling Assassin. Wendy and Brian’s interest in racing began when a friend of Brian’s brought his horse Our Kazz from New Zealand to Adelaide and captured the listed Port Adelaide Guineas. After holding smaller shares in horses, they purchased the Street Cry mare who became Wendy Ellen in their own right. She started her career with David Balfour before running her last races with Leon Macdonald. She eventually won twice and placed on a further fifteen occasions earning over $50,000. Wendy Ellen then went to stud where she has produced three winners in Divine Weaver (by Artie Schiller), Devine Tapestry (by Dylan Thomas) and the Rebel Raider gelding Smiling Assassin. The most successful of the three, Smiling Assassin has now won 5 races and over $175,000 from 45 starts, he has also been placed on a further 16 occasions. For a variety of reasons, the gelding has moved around stables with his initial three wins coming during his time with Wayne Francis and Glen Kent. Since landing with Garret Lynch, he has enjoyed great success winning two including a metropolitan benchmark 78 and placing in the other three starts with Garret. The most recent wins have been with Eran Boyd in the saddle. Wendy Ellen has another three progeny that have not yet raced. The granddam is Supernal (by Chief’s Crown) whose progeny included the handy mare Our Sharapova (by Fasliyev) who is in turn the dam of the promising Nicconi gelding Aston Rapova already winner of five for the Francis/Kent stable. Anther of the progeny of the granddam is the Fastnet Rock gelding What Happenedhenry winner of nine races and almost $280,000. At the time of writing Smiling Assassin heads to Morphettville with the chance of taking his winnings over $200,000. We wish Wendy and Brian the best of luck with him and with the other progeny of Wendy Ellen and her daughters.