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Young New Zealand sire Thorn Park is a stallon who is quietly moving up the ranks, and he enjoyed a good weekend with Centennial Park winning the Cleanvent Expressway Stakes (gr. II) at Rosehill, Australia, and Jimmy Choux taking the H.S. Dyke Waikato Guineas (gr. III).

A son of the brilliant miler Spinning World (by Nureyev), and from the great family that descends from Denise’s Joy (his fourth dam), Thorn Park was a A$60,000 Inglis weanling, and then made A$200,000 at the same venue as an Easter Yearling. Undefeated in two starts as a juvenile, Thorn Park gained his first black type the following season in the Hobartville Stakes (gr. II), then followed up in the Phar Lap Stakes (gr. II). Tried at a mile in the Doncaster Handicap (gr. I), he probably failed to get the trip. At four, Thorn Park underwent a tough 12-race campaign, all but one of his starts coming in graded events. He started on a bright note early in the season with a win in the Premiere Stakes (gr. II), and added to his win column in the Moonga Stakes (gr. III) in October. Thorn Park didn’t win again until May, when he captured the B.T.C. Cup (gr. II). Fourth in the Doomben 10000 (gr. I) next out, Thorn Park demonstrated his admirable toughness by ending his career with his most prestigious win, the Stradbroke Handicap (gr. I).

Retired to stud at Windsor Park, Cambridge, New Zealand, Thorn Park has nine stakes winners in his first three crops, and six of these are graded. Jimmy Choux, who won a grade II at the weekend has been the most prolific of these with six graded stakes, including the New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (gr. I). Rated A by TrueNicks, Jimmy Choux is out of a mare by Centaine (by Century, who in turn was by the My Babu horse Better Boy), a broodmare sire line that has done well under Nureyev. Centennial Park (TrueNicks A++) has a clever pedigree, as he is out of a mare by Last Tycoon, who is a Northern Dancer/Mill Reef cross, where Thorn Park’s sire, Spinning World, is a Northern Dancer/Riverman cross (Mill Reef and Riverman being similarly-bred sons of Never Bend).

Filed under: Recent Winners, Sires