Mirage Dancer landed the G1 Metropolitan Handicap at Royal Randwick on Saturday on a significant day in Australia for his breeders, Juddmonte Farms, and his sire, Frankel.
This victory under Nash Rawiller represents the 6-year-old’s breakthrough at G1 level, as well as a first success since showing early promise for the Trent Busuttin-Natalie Young Australian partnership when finishing a close third in the G1 Caulfield Cup on his Southern Hemisphere debut last October.
Formerly trained in Britain by Sir Michael Stoute, the Juddmonte Farms homebred was a familiar sight at the summer festivals in the UK. His crowning moment for Stoute was when he won the G3 Glorious Stakes at the Goodwood Festival by 3½ lengths from G2 winner and G1-placed Red Verdon.
Mirage Dancer is an 11th G1 winner for Frankel who, last month, reached 40 Group winners quicker than any other European sire in the history of the Pattern.
Frankel also secured G1 placings on Saturday with fellow Juddmonte-bred Finche, who finished third in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington, and Hungry Heart, who was second by a head in the Flight Stakes at Randwick.
Mirage Dancer is the fifth foal to race out of Heat Haze, who is out of influential broodmare Hasili and thus a half-sister to former Banstead Manor Stud stallions Dansili, Champs Elysees and Cacique. Heat Haze is still fulfilling broodmare duties at 21 and has a full-sister to Mirage Dancer currently at foot.
Reflecting on the sale of Mirage Dancer to Australia, Juddmonte Farms’ Simon Mockridge said, “We kept him in training as a 5-year-old, so it’s not that we had lost faith in the horse – we always knew he was capable of winning at this level – but there comes a time where you have to move on.”
Mockridge was quick to highlight the significance of this day for his sire, too. “It’s been an extraordinary morning. It’s fantastic. Frankel only has a very small representation down in Australia, so it is a significant day for him.”
He added, “It is down to the toughness and durability of the sire. That’s what he puts into the stock. We are incredibly lucky and blessed to have a horse like Frankel retire to stud. He is a stallion for the future.”
When asked about the full-sister and family, Mockridge said, “Mirage Dancer was a big, scopey horse. She is finer but has a lot of quality. We like her a lot. This is a wonderful family. She [Heat Haze] is a multiple Group 1 winner herself and comes from that great Hasili family. It’s nice that she has now produced a Group 1 winner herself.
“She [Hasili] was an extraordinary mare. It’s not just her influence on Juddmonte, it’s her influence on the general stud book.”