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.