Per Incanto's start to the Australian spring just got even better on Friday evening when the exciting Evaporate (Per Incanto – Savanna by Animal Kingdom) pictured, registered his sires 30th individual stakes winner with a dominant win in the 1600m Group 2 Bill Stutt Stakes at Moonee Valley.
Recording his fourth consecutive success, the last three in the city, the LA bred Evaporate looks set to be a leading player in what promises to be one of the classiest lineups for the Group One Caulfield Guineas in many a year.
Running third in the Bill Stutt Stakes was the Per Incanto colt Rue De Royale. Connections are also aiming the LA bred colt at the Caulfield Guineas and potentially a return to his country of birth for the Group One New Zealand 2000 Guineas.
Evaporate was a $330,000 purchase by Lindsay Park Racing from the Sledmere Stud draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Prominent among the gelding’s ownership group are Francis and Chris Cook who have had a lot of success with the progeny of Per Incanto, in particular the $4.3 million earner Lost and Running.
The Per Incanto gelding becomes the seventh individual stakes winner descending directly from the much-loved LA broodmare gem Sound Lover. The Group 3 winning daughter of the excellent broodmare sire Sound Reason was the dam of Per Incanto's multiple stakes winner Magnum, while her daughter Savamour is the dam of the Group 3 winning Per Incanto mere Belluci Babe, the high-class Sydney sprinting mare of a couple of seasons back.
LA will offer Belluci Babe’s first progeny, a yearling colt by Zoustar at this summer's NZB Karaka Book 1 Sale.
The Per Incanto momentum in Australia continued on Saturday with progressive mare Marble Arch taking out the open sprint in Adelaide. Resuming after a decent break, the Goodwood Stud bred five-year-old mare looks to have returned in the kind of form that saw her win her first four Australian starts and run 2nd to boom galloper Another Wil at Caulfield.
And to cap off a wonderful weekend for the farm in Australia, the LA bred and sold Desert Lightning was a brilliant winner of the feature race in Melbourne on Saturday, the Group 3 Sandown Stakes over 1500m. The Wes Van Der Scheer bred gelding, already a Group One winner for his owners Barneswood Farms, looks right on track for the Group One Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield.