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Freedman to Train Van Nistelrooy - Ethereal filly 14 Aug 2006
One of Australia’s most successful thoroughbred trainers has been selected to carve out the racing career of a filly who will have every expectation placed upon her. Lee Freedman has been assigned the task of preparing the two-year-old filly by Van Nistelrooy (USA) (Storm Cat) out of Caulfield and Melbourne Cup-winner Ethereal (NZ) Rhythm) who will race in the colours of her dam.

Owned by Peter and Philip Vela’s Pencarrow Stud, this filly is yet to be named but has some mighty big shoes to fill. “The Ethereal filly has been one of the biggest improvers of our two-year-olds,” said Leon Casey, Manager of Pencarrow Stud. “She has been broken in and has been back in pre-training for her second preparation,” he said. “She’ll be sent across to Australia when we think she is ready,” said Leon.




Van Nistelrooy - Ethereal filly

Pencarrow Stud has a long history of producing outstanding racehorses with the likes of Romanee Conti, Riverina Charm, Grand Echezeaux, Sarwatch and of course Ethereal to name but a few to carry the blue and white hooped colours of Peter and Philip Vela to victory.

Established as a boutique breeding operation with some of Australasia’s leading families represented among the mares grazing in the paddocks, Pencarrow has a large investment in the New Zealand thoroughbred industry, not only through their mares and racing stock, but also stallions.

One of six New Zealand stud farms to secure the services of Van Nistelrooy upon his retirement from racing, Pencarrow has sent a number of their best mares to the young sire over the last three years, Ethereal obviously one of them.

Three other Van Nistelrooy fillies from his first crop have been retained for racing by the Vela’s and their trainers have also been selected. A filly out of Georgiana (NZ) (Nassipour), a half sister to multiple Group One-winner Star Dancer will also head across the Tasman to be trained by none other than David Hayes while the other two fillies will remain in New Zealand.

The filly out of Latino L’amour (Ire) (Diesis), from the family of Danehill Dancer, will join the Richard Yuill stable while Mark Todd will train the daughter of Group Three-winner Cheerful (NZ) (Star Way).

“Peter generally comes up with a list of trainers for each horse and then we work through it depending on the individual horse as some of them are better suited to certain environments than others,” said Leon.

Mares penciled in to visit Van Nistelrooy this season from the Pencarrow broodmare band include Pavan (NZ) (Centaine) who was placed second in both the New Zealand and Australasian Oaks, Sadler’s Wells-mare Kwan (Ire), Concert Party (Aus) (Thunder Gulch), a half sister to stakes placed two-year-old Empire’s Choice (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice) and Fern (GB) (Shirley Heights).

Van Nistelrooy stands at Trelawney Stud for a fee of NZ$10,000 + GST.