Stakes winner for Whatalovelyday

05 Sep 2023

As spring racing begins to heat up, we were thrilled to see the Jason Warren trained Benedetta claim her first black type win in Saturday's Group 3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.

 

From the first crop of Gr1 William Reid Stakes winner Hellbent (I Am Invincible), Benedetta is the second living foal of Gr2 placed mare Whatalovelyday (Domesday). The four-year-old mare has won six of eight starts, including a win in the $750,000 Inglis Sprint in March, plus a third in the Listed Sunlight Classic.

 

Whatalovelyday was initially offered at auction  as a racing and breeding proposition by Willow Park at the Magic Millions Broodmare Sale in 2016, where she failed to meet her $130,000 reserve. Returned to the farm, she was covered by Starspangledbanner and sold at the 2017 edition of the sale for $150,000 to Hancock Quality Bloodstock.

 

While Whatalovelyday's first foal unfortunately died before racing, her second foal is the winning mare Whatafox (Foxwedge), who was also placed at Listed and Gr2 level.

 

With two foals to race for two stakes horses, Whatalovelyday has made an exciting start to her breeding career for owners Brenton and Liz Parker and looks to have an incredibly exciting spring ahead!

 

Benedetta's win followed the exciting return of unbeaten colt Libertad the previous weekend, who extended his unbeaten run to three, when notching his second stakes win in the Gr3 San Domenico Stakes.

 

Libertad is also a product of a Willow Park-sourced broodmare, being by Russian Revolution from winning mare Electric Charge (Charge Forward), who was sold through our 2016 Magic Millions broodmare draft for $200,000.

 

Her purchaser was Rheinwood Pastoral Co., who sold Electric Charge's first five foals for a total of $840,000. Following Libertad's first Gr3 win in the Kindergarten Stakes, Rheinwood sold Electric Charge for $360,000 earlier this year.