Steel Dragon, a first crop gelding by the Lyndhurst Stud, Warwick Danehill sire Hidden Dragon suggested again on Thursday of last week that he is the North Queensland king of the kids when he romped to a 3.3 lengths win at Townsville. Carrying top weight of 59.0 kgs in the 12 runner field, he scooted over the 1000m in 0.57.80 and a last 600m in 33.88.
The effort meant that the Ray Long trained Steel Dragon retained his unbeaten record. He has run three times for three wins at Townsville, succeeding narrowly on debut on September 6 and then returning from a spell to score by 2.5 lengths on February 4, taking just 57.42 seconds to run the 1000m.
Knocked down to one of his two owners, G. Nicolls, for $20,000 at the January yearling sales conducted by Magic Millions at the Gold Coast, for $20,000, where he was sold through Bileena Stud, Warwick for breeder M. Hemmings, Steel Dragon is the third winner from the four foals to race out of Vo Gold, a Volksraad winner of seven races. The pedigree contains a 3x4 inbreeding to Danehill’s sire Danzig.
Steel Dragon’s effort at Townsville on Thursday was followed by two good performances by first crop offspring of Hidden Dragon, a Danehill winner of six races in Hong Kong and Group 1 placed, in the15-runner juvenile event at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Each of them appearing for the second time and following up debut thirds in Brisbane, the Hidden Dragon contestants were the winner, the Robert Heathcote trained filly Hidden Kisses, and fourth placed I’llbetricked, a David Lawlor prepared gelding.
Hidden Kisses, a filly from a mare bred on a cross of two Eureka Park used sires, Piccolo and Semipalatinsk, was the second Brisbane winner by Hidden Dragon during February, the other being Huff and Puff. Also trained by Lawlor, he won by 1.3 lengths at Eagle Farm on February 13.
Hidden Dragon has 34 second crop yearlings in the catalogue for the QTIS 600 Yearling sale to be conducted by Magic Millions at the Gold Coast on March 21 and 22, including offspring of mares by Sequalo, Canny Lad, Dehere, Flying Spur, Octagonal, Luskin Star, Sir Tristram, Quest for Fame, Fusaichi Pegasus, Tale of the Cat, Celestial Dancer, Jetball and Air Express. The line up includes 23 from the Lyndhurst Stud, consignors of a total of 41 lots.
