Winner: Border Rebel (Johannesburg-Frontier)
Race: GRC Takeover Target Stakes LR (1200m)
Sold for: $26,000
Sale: 2007 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale
Vendor: Jonel Park Thoroughbreds (As Agent)
Buyer: Hazelwood Stud
Earnings: $469,150
Owner(s): Mrs VA Scott-Mason
Trainer: Sue Grills (Tamworth)
Border Rebel added another feature win to his impressive young career when he won a sensational listed $100,000 Takeover Target Stakes (1200m) at Gosford today.
Marred by a two horse fall in the home straight, the race became the 12th won by the four-year-old from just 16 lifetime starts.
The main concern for trainer Sue Grills and owner Veronica Scott-Mason is now what to do with the Tamworth based star.
At the post Border Rebel raced two and a quarter lengths away from proven stakes winner Youthful Jack – the winner and runner-up both Magic Millions graduates.
Last start Sydney winner My Vegas was third, another half neck back between runners.
“It was a great win but it’s sad to see that happen,” trainer Sue Grills told AAP after the race.
“I just hope the riders and horses are okay – it takes a bit of the gloss off the win.”
Putting aside the drama which saw two horses and jockeys fall, Border Rebel was outstanding yet again.
“He’s made my life different,” Grills commented.
“I don’t know what I’ll go now – I have three options,” she added.
“He could go on to the Ramornie at Grafton, but I think he’ll get too much weight.”
“Another option is to freshen him up and run him in the Premiere Stakes, which is weight-for-age, or give him a break and head to Melbourne in the spring.”
Winning rider, boom apprentice Timothy Bell, who was suspended for causing interference earlier in the race, said Border Rebel travelled sweetly throughout.
Purchased for just $26,000 from the 2007 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale, Border Rebel is raced by former Hazelwood Stud owner Veronica Scott-Mason.
The outstanding New South Wales based sprinter is a son of former world champion juvenile Johannesburg – the sire of this season’s AJC Australian Oaks winner Once Were Wild – a fellow Gold Coast graduate.
Border Rebel is one of two winners, from two runners, for the four time winning Flying Spur mare Frontier.
Frontier, who won up to 1200 metres, is a daughter of the Tranquil Star Stakes winning Marscay mare Chador.
Chador in turn is from the Without Fear mare Emirate – a winning of the listed Cinderella Stakes as a two-year-old.
