ADAM SANGSTER, the owner of the Swettenham stud at Nagambie in Victoria, had good reasons to be pleased with the efforts of both first and second in the $250,000 Group1 Bing Crosby Stakes over six furlongs at Del Mar, California last month. In the first place the winner, Smiling Tiger, is by Hold That Tiger, a Storm Cat 2002 European juvenile champion who shuttles to Swettenham, and in the second the runner up, the Australian bred local and England Group1 winner Scenic Blast is, as his name suggests, a son of Scenic.
A now deceased sire by Adam’s father Robert Sangster’s Sadler’s Wells, Scenic spent part of his sire career at the Swettenham stud in Victoria when it was owned by a partnership of the Sangsters and the Hayes family of Lindsay Park under the name of Collingrove. In the Bing Crosby, although he turned in a typical courageous performance, Scenic Blast was no match for Smiling Tiger, so dominant from the front, he careered away to score by margins of 1.5 lengths and 3.3 lengths. At three the baby of the field, one which included four Group1 winners, and the most lightly raced contestant, Smiling Tiger was so impressive he is headed towards the American Breeders’ Cup Sprint, an event which could see him clash with another Australian bred international star, Starspangledbanner.
After the Bing Crosby, Smiling Tiger’s trainer Jeff Bonde said of the colt ”he’s got such a long stride and just does things so easily.” Also, his jockey, Victor Espinoza, summed him up, “he was a really good 2-year-old, but he’s even better now.” The Bing Crosby success took Smiling Tiger’s record to four wins (three stakes) and four thirds (all stakes, including two Group1s) in eight starts. He was one of two good performers in major North American races by Hold That Tiger last month, the other being Jungle Wave, a neck second on August 29 in a $220,000 Group 2 event over seven furlongs at Woodbine, Canada. Jungle Wave has raced 19 times, won seven races up to Group 2 level and picked up minor in seven other stakes, including two Group1 fourths.
The day before his August 29 outing, one of Hold That Tiger’s Australian runners, Apprehend, finished third in a $100,000 Listed Quality over 1700m at Caulfield. In earning over $370,000, he has won six races (four in Melbourne) and been second in eight. His other Australian produced runners have included Whipsaw (six starts, won Bunbury Cup-LR by 1.5 lengths), Tigresque (in first four outings in order won Adelaide, Melbourne, second and third Flemington), Detroit Tiger (15 starts, five wins Western Australia, on debut at two second Blue Diamond Preview –LR at Caulfield), Hull City (10 starts, wins Sandown, Cranbourne, Doomben), Tasmanian Tiger (five starts, won Alfa Bowl, Launceston), Lie In Wait (20 starts, seven wins, in six successive outings Perth, four wins, a neck second and a third), Sharada (three successive wins as favourite – Ballarat (two), Warrnambool, fourth Flemington),Tiger Khan (four wins Launceston), Hold That Conquest (won Adelaide) and Tiger Good (Gosford and Kembla Grange). His Australian bred progeny have also won in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
The 10-years-old 16.1 hands chestnut Hold That Tiger is very well credentialed to supply good winners, by breeding, physical quality and ability. In the breeding department, he is a three-quarter brother-in-blood to successful dual hemisphere sire Hennessy. Like Giant’s Causeway,Tale of the Cat,Tabasco Cat, One Cool Cat and Black Minnaloushe, they are by one of the great modern sires of sires, Storm Cat. A highlight of Hold That Tiger’s ten start racing career was a win at two in the Group1 Grand Criterium (1400m) at Longchamp in France, a race in which he showed a remarkable turn of foot to come from last. He had earlier won two races at 1200m, including the Group 3 Railway Stakes, and ended the year with a third in the Group1 American Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Although he did not win at three, Hold That Tiger proved one of the good milers of the year. Three Group1 efforts were a fourth in the St James’s Palace Stakes in England and in America a second in the Woodward Stakes and a fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Now under the management of Adam Sangster and benefiting from his biggest ever crop, over 80 potential runners among current 2-year-olds, Hold That Tiger could be poised to be more effective in Australia. One of eight sires available this year at Swettenham, he is on a fee of $8,000 including GST.
