Thorn Park takes centre stage

Centennial Park upstaged his more glamorous rivals in a stellar return to racing when taking the G2 Expressway Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.

Centennial Park is a son of leading Kiwi stallion Thorn Park and his earnings went beyond $660,000 with his seventh – and most important – victory.  He was passed-in for $140,000 at the 2007 Inglis Easter yearling sale.

It was the second leg of a trans Tasman double for Thorn Park.

Centennial Park (5g Thorn Park – Trephina by Last Tycoon) is trained by David Payne and has a great affinity with the Rosehill circuit, having won six at the venue.  He was offered for sale by Windsor Park Stud as a yearling and they have another six High Chaparral lots catalogued for this year’s Easter Sale.

Centennial Park’s win spoiled the return of Sydney favourite Hot Danish (Nothin’ Leica Dane).  The Les Bridge trained mare was third home and has now been placed in 24 out of 30 starts.

In New Zealand, Thorn Park’s dominant colt Jimmy Choux proved his superiority once again in the G3 Waikato Guineas at Te Rapa.  He handled the step-up to 2000m easily, sprinting quickly and going clear to score by more than two lengths.

Jimmy Choux (3c Thorn Park– Cierzo by Centaine) had earlier captured the G1 NZ 2000 Guineas, G2 Hawkes Bay Guineas and G2 Great Northern Guineas under the guidance of Hastings based trainer John Bary.

Jimmy Choux is a homebred for Richard and Liz Wood of Chouxmaani Investments.  His sire Thorn Park was a G1 winner of the Stradbroke Hcp and he stands at Windsor Park Stud for a fee of $13,500.  His dam Cierzo is a daughter of LR Castletown Stakes winner Gale (Wild Rampage).