News

Voyage Bubble leads home Inglis quinella in G1 mile

21st Jan 2024

Star Inglis Classic Yearling Sale graduate Voyage Bubble (Deep Field) dominated today’s G1 Stewards’ Cup over 1600m at Sha Tin to earn a breakthrough win at the highest level.

The Ricky Yiu-trained 5YO was winning his sixth race in Hong Kong to bring his earnings to HK$41.05m (AUD$7.95m), with his wins also including last season’s Hong Kong Derby and Hong Kong Classic Mile.

“I’m very proud of this horse, he put in a fantastic run in the (G1) International Mile and backed it up today,” said winning jockey James MacDonald who was making a flying visit to Hong Kong.

Voyage Bubble was purchased by trainer Ricky Yiu for $380,000 from the draft of Torryburn Stud at the 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.

“He’s a fantastic horse,” said Brett Cornish of Torryburn Stud.

“The pace looked slow, but he really won very easily and just seems to be getting better and better with age.

“He was one of two Torryburn-bred Inglis graduates in the race and I think the other, Straight Arron, can make his presence felt in a race like the G1 Hong Kong Gold Cup next month.

“Thanks to (Stud Manager) Mel (Copelin) and the team, the farm is operating at an extremely high level and regularly producing top racehorses.

“It’s exciting to be bringing 11 yearlings to the Classic Sale in a few weeks, a sale that has been very good to us through the likes of Hot King Prawn and Voyage Bubble.

“We have also sold the likes of Home Affairs and Straight Arron at Easter, so I think the market can approach our select draft of 5 at that sale with real confidence also,” added Cornish.

Voyage Bubble led home an Inglis Classic Yearling Sale quinella in the prestigious contest, with the John Size-trained 5YO Beauty Eternal second across the line.

The 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale will be held at Riverside Stables, Sydney, on February 11-13.

To view the catalogue for the 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, click here.

This weekend also saw a trio of Inglis 2YOs win across Australia, with each producing performances that suggest they have roles to play in some of the upcoming 2YO feature races, including the $2m Inglis Millennium at Randwick on February 10^th.

At Rosehill on Saturday, the Waterhouse/Bott trained colt Fully Lit (Hellbent), a $60,000 purchase from the draft of Glenlogan Park at last year’s Classic Sale, produced a display of sustained speed over 1100m to put his 10 rivals to the sword.

At the same sale, Kris Lees and Justin Bahen sourced today’s Scone 2YO winner Thundering Soul (Spirit Of Boom).

Purchased from the draft of Redbank North/Huntworth Stud for $200,000, the colt showed a sharp turn of foot in the closing stages of the 900m contest to win in good style.

And at Gawler on Saturday, exciting filly Kuroyanagi (Written Tycoon), justified short-priced favouritism to win over 1100m on debut by an ever-widening margin of 2.7 lengths.

The Will Clarken & Niki O’Shea trainee was a $390,000 purchase by Clarken Bloodstock/Ridgeport Holdings from the draft of Yarraman Park at last year’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale.