Project Pedigree Comes Full Circle

By John Berry

Sydney's dominant trainer Chris Waller continues to go from strength-to-strength, his success notable for both its quality and its quantity. Even by his usual standards, though, sending Good Project (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) on the marathon journey across the continent from Sydney to Perth to land the Group 1 Railway S. at Ascot was a special achievement.

It is a leap of faith to send a horse to race 3,000 miles from home. It is also a leap of faith to run a horse in a Group 1 race when he has no stakes form whatsoever to his name. To combine the two, therefore, is a very bold venture indeed.

Good Project, a 4-year-old son of the Redoute's Choice stallion Not A Single Doubt (Aus), went into the Railway with the creditable statistics of four wins and 11 minor placings from 20 starts. However, this form was not in stakes company: earlier this spring in Sydney he had won a Benchmark 85 handicap at Rosehill and a Benchmark 92 handicap at Randwick before being sent down to Melbourne to contest one of the supporting races on the undercard at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day (in which he finished second). Thus, the abrupt rise in class to Group 1 company was remarkable.

Once again, though, Waller's judgement was vindicated and he duly saddled another Group 1 winner for Mr. C. C. Lai, whose colors have also been carried this year by G1 Sydney Cup winner Grand Marshal (GB) (Dansili {GB}) and G1 Darley Classic hero Delectation (Aus) (Shamardal).

Good Project, a A$300,000 purchase at the 2013 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, was one of two stakes winners on the card at Ascot for Arrowfield sire Not A Single Doubt, whose profile has seemingly been on an ever-upward trajectory since retiring to the Hunter Valley property 10 years ago.

Not A Single Doubt is something of a rarity nowadays, being a horse who retired to one of the major studs without having won a group race. The best two of his four wins (in the Canonbury S. over 1000 meters at Randwick as a 2-year-old and in the Zeditave S. over 1200 meters at Caulfield at three) both came in listed company, while his only notable group race form came when fourth in the Group 2 Todman Slipper Trial as a juvenile and second in a Group 3 sprint in Melbourne as a 3-year-old.

However, he was a fast horse and, more to the point, one with 'Arrowfield' written all over his pedigree: he is one of several sons of the multiple champion sire Redoute's Choice (Aus) (Danehill) to have joined their father on the Arrowfield roster and comes from the immediate family of the outstanding Snippets (Aus) (Lunchtime {GB}). The latter was a hugely charismatic champion racehorse in the '80s who then did extremely well in his stud career, which began at Trans Media Park near Cootamundra and ended at Arrowfield, where he is buried and where his excellent grandson Snitzel (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) now stands at a fee of A$80,000.

Although bred and trained in New South Wales, Good Project is an appropriate winner of one of Western Australia's best races because he comes from a family that has been throwing out winners in WA for generations.

Good Project's fourth dam Lucky Wish (Aus) was a daughter of the 1971 Melbourne Cup winner Silver Knight (NZ) (Alcimedes {GB}), who spent his entire stud career in Western Australia and who sired the WA-bred and -owned 1984 Melbourne Cup winner Black Knight (Aus). Lucky Wish won three provincial races in her home state and was placed in town. She then bred several winners by the hugely successful WA-based sire Haulpak (Aus) (Dignitas). Two of these winners–I'm In Luck (Aus) and Wishing Free (Aus)–were stakes-placed in Perth, while another was Good Project's third dam Free Wish (Aus).

Mated with the 1986 Sydney Cup winner Marooned (GB) (Mill Reef), Free Wish produced Good Project's second dam Free Now (Aus). Free Now, five times a metropolitan winner in Perth, proved to be a good broodmare after her racing days were over. Good Project's dam Euchre, a daughter of the very fast Star Kingdom-line horse Final Card (Aus) (Elounda Bay {NZ}), was one of her winners. Euchre has now enjoyed a useful stud career on the east side of the country.

The now deceased, former Victorian-based (but US-conceived and NZ-foaled) Miswaki stallion Umatilla was arguably an appropriate mate for Euchre bearing in mind that although trained by Tommy Hughes in Melbourne, he had registered his biggest victory in Perth when taking WA's top 2-year-old race, the Karrakatta Plate, which carried Group 1 status at the time. Euchre bred two good horses by Umatilla: World Airlines (Aus) and Alacarte (Aus), who both showed stakes form in Singapore, and now Good Project, her eighth foal, has shown himself to be her best yet. That he has done so by winning a Group 1 race in Perth seems very appropriate.