Academus takes G2 Western Australian Guineas

Champion sire Lonhro capped off a great day on 24 November, recording his second Stakes winner when his three-year-old-son Academus broke through for a well-deserved Stakes win, capturing the G2 Western Australian Guineas over a mile in Australia.

Given the perfect ride by jockey Kerrin McEvoy, Academus appeared to relish the drop in weight, holding on to defeat the fast finishing Dubawi filly Bippo No Bungus by a short-half-head. In the process, the victory of the Peter Snowden-trained runner provided his sire with his sixth individual southern hemisphere Stakes winner of the current racing season.

Bred by Darley, Academus is out of the Dehere mare Youth Presence, now the dam of three Stakes winners including G1 South Australian Derby winner Kidnapped and the Listed winner Deledio. Youth Presence has a two-year-old colt by Street Cry named Youth, a Reset yearling colt and foaled a filly to Bernardini in late October.

Having never finished further back that fourth in seven career starts, before his G2 victory, Academus had already been placed twice at G2 level as well as at G1 level behind Sizzling in the T.J. Smith Stakes in Brisbane of his juvenile year.

With his two-year-old daughter Bounding winning the Listed Murdoch Newell Stakes earlier in the day, the victory of Academus took Lonhro’s Stakes tally to 36, which includes the G1 victories of Mental and the two Darley Australia residents stallions, Denman and Benifca, who stand alongside their sire at Darley Kelvinside.

The Champion sire of the 2010/11 Australian racing season, Lonhro is set to stand his second consecutive season at Jonabell, standing at a fee of $30,000.