Nero’s Jay wins again

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 33

Nero’s Jay wins again

By JEFF SCOTT The Prebbleton-based stallion, Nero’s 8.8., was credited with his second $lOO,OOO three-year-old earner when the Queensland Derby winner, Nero’s Jay, won at Tweed Heads earlier this week. This was the seventh win in succession for Nero’s Jay, which has gone from strength-to-strength since joining Kevin Thomas’s Queensland stable last November.

The colt, which won twice in New Zealand from Craig Buchan’s Dunedin stable for Wingatui galloping identities, Bryan Kennedy and Brian Anderton, has now won 10 of his 14 lifetime starts. He caused a sensation in his Albion Park debut for Thomas when he set a 1:55.5 mile record for a race in Australia or New Zealand.

In the Queensland Derby, he was locked away three back on the inner to the turn, then stormed past Jane Ellen (parked mostly) in the straight to win handsomely in a 1:59 rate for the 2100 m. Nero’s Jay is the first

foal from Red Jay, a Tactile mare which raced just four times from Dennis Smolenski’s stables, then in Dunedin, for three fifths, in the 1983-84 term.

Red Jay’s dam, Jayship (by Lordship), was an unraced half-sister to Blue Tryrax (four wins), their dam Blue Jay (by Great Blaze) winning seven races including an Invercargill Cup for the Kennedy family. Blue Jay was a halfsister to the outstanding pacer of the 19605, Blue Prince (13 wins, third in the 1962 N.Z. Cup), and later a successful sire in New Zealand and Australia.

Other successful pacers from this family include: Bachelor Blue, the winner of SUSIIS,OOO in the 19705, El Cougar, a former joint three-year-old mile record holder in New Zealand at 1:58.9, and Elbon Blue (1:57.2 in North America). Zola’s Pride, the leading female four-year-old trotting earner for the season, winning $25,730, is also from the same family as Nero’s Jay.

Zola’s Pride set a

national record for trotting mares over 2600 m mobile of 3:20 at Addington Raceway in March. Nero’s Jay joins Neroship as $lOO,OOO-plus earners for their sire, while Nero’s 8.8. (1:55.4 and $U5466,865) has the rare distinction of siring an Oaks winner (Adina Bebe) and a Derby winner (Nero’s Jay) from his first crop. Sent to W.A.

Rule Du Jour, the winner of two races for the Broadfield trainer, Robert Dunn, and partner Bert Penney, has been sent by his owners to Western Australia for his future racing. He is now in Trevor Warwick’s stable. Warwick enjoyed much success with Rule Du Jour’s older half-brother, Here Comes Duke (1:57.2), after the Mark Lobell gelding earlier showed much early promise for Dunn.

“Rule Du Jour is a horse with heaps of ability but we just could not get him back to his best here. Hopefully Trevor might be able to do the trick for us,” said Dunn.

Rule Du Jour and Here Comes Duke, are from the 1978 New Zealand Oaks winner, Lady’s Rule, also the dam of this season’s trotting winner, Jayar’s Pride. Earlier this season, Dunn, and his father Alan, sent the well-performed Tiger Wave mare, Late Lustre, to Sydney to race from Kevin Newman’s stable. Up until last month, the eight-year-old mare, which left New Zealand on a C 9 assessment, had added another sAust34,ooo to her earnings. She had won the New South Wales Mares’ Championships at Harold Park in a record 1:59.4 mile rate for the 2350 m. No Nukes sire The National Bloodstock Corporation-owned Payson’s Brother (1:54.6) is a second No Nukes stallion to be standing in Canterbury next season. Payson’s Brother, which stood his first season at National Bloodstock Farm at Frankton, is to stand at Graham Lamb’s Shantahlia Stud at Cust next spgng.