By Josh Spasaro, courtesy of The Thoroughbred Report
Hello Romeo (NZ) looked like a chip off the old block with the classy front-running fashion in which he saluted in a two-year-old race at Bendigo on Wednesday. And Cambridge Stud, where his sire Hello Youmzain (Fr) currently stands, believe their stallion can reach the same heights in the Southern Hemisphere as he did in France and England.
The Lindsay Park colt became the first victor from Group 1 winner Hello Youmzain's New Zealand crops at Cambridge Stud.
Hello Youmzain was the leading first-season sire in France by earnings, winners and stakes winners, and his first Northern Hemisphere two-year-olds include Group 3 victors Misunderstood (Fr) and Electrolyte (Ire).
Cambridge Stud CEO Henry Plumptre was delighted with the high-cruising speed Hello Romeo displayed under jockey Koby Jennings at Bendigo on Wednesday, before finding another gear on the straight to comfortably hold off stablemate for Ben, Will and JD Hayes, Mrs Iglesia (Aus) (Dirty Work {Aus}).
Hello Romeo is too good for them to record his first win in the opener at Bendigo! 🔥@lindsayparkrace pic.twitter.com/9ZL9B5wvQ1
— Racing.com (@Racing) November 13, 2024
“It was quite like his old man. Hello Youmzain was a horse who didn't come from the back with a withering burst,” Plumptre told The Thoroughbred Report.
“He just sat up on the pace and kicked away from them in his really good wins, like the Haydock Sprint Cup and Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
“He sat on the pace and toughed it out, and that's the style of horse he was. And that was pretty much what that colt did [on Wednesday]. It was good to see.”
Hello Youmzain has now produced 19 winners from 46 runners, with 105 named foals in total, and Cambridge Stud shares the belief that he will continue producing winners.
By Kodiac (GB), the sire of 102 stakes victors, Plumptre said demand for Hello Youmzain progeny would continue to increase next year.
“He [Hello Youmzain] has got [four] stakes horses across France and England,” he said. “So his first year up there was very good, and good enough for his fee to go from €25,000 to €40,000.
“He's obviously going to be in demand next year. And we've got a lot of faith in the horse.”
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