A mid-winter card isn’t normally flush with horses boasting world-class pedigrees, but two superbly related gallopers are set to compete at Sydney’s final metropolitan meeting of the season.
The Bjorn Baker-trained Rupertaar and Tazaral from the Peter and Paul Snowden yard have been accepted for races on Saturday, the pair both hailing from internationally renowned thoroughbred families.
Tazaral is a half-brother to 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner and 2021 Prix de l’Arc De Triomphe runner-up Tarnawa, while his little sister is exciting filly Tahiyra, who captured the Coronation Stakes at this year’s Royal Ascot carnival.
Rupertaar’s dam, Great Dansaar, is a half-sister to dual Group 1 winner and 2016 Golden Slipper and Cox Plate placegetter Yankee Rose.
As good as Yankee Rose was on the racetrack, her most prolific role appears to be that of broodmare, with her daughter Liberty Island already a triple Group 1 winner in Japan and regarded as one of the most exciting fillies to emerge there in years.
Mindful of Rupertaar’s bloodlines, trainer Bjorn Baker is keen to add to her value with some black type this spring.
“Yankee Rose is in the pedigree, she’s left a Group One winner in Japan, so there has been a pedigree upgrade and I’ve always thought she was up to black type,” Baker said of Rupertaar.
“She is also a half-sister to Isotope, so it’s a good family.
“I’d love to run her on Saturday and then possibly look at a race like the Toy Show Handicap, she is going super.”
Rising five, Rupertaar has won four of her 16 starts, including one at Saturday metropolitan level last winter.
She resumes in the Kanebridge Handicap (1100m) this weekend and Baker, who also trained Great Dansaar, is hoping she can further enhance her outstanding first-up record of three wins from four fresh runs.
“She is a filly who doesn’t carry a lot of condition, a little bit like her mother Great Dansaar,” Baker said.
“She has trialled brilliantly.”
Tazaral contests the NSWROA Trophy Handicap (1600m) after resuming with an emphatic victory over the same course and distance earlier this month.
