Duais Rallies to Land Queensland Oaks

Rosemont Stud's Shamus Award moved to the top of the group 1-winning sire charts for the 2020/21 season after siring his third group 1 winner this term courtesy of the June 5 James Squire Queensland Oaks (G1) winner Duais.

The son of Snitzel , who has just four crops of racing age, drew level with Written Tycoon , leader of the general classification sire standings this season, on three group 1 winners for the campaign, ahead of a host of leading sires on two, including Snitzel, Fastnet Rock , Exceed And Excel , Frankel , All Too Hard, and Savabeel .

Duais became Shamus Award's second individual Oaks winner for the season, following on from Media Award's win in the Australasian Oaks (G1) last month, a feat only achieved by Redoute's Choice  (2013) in the last 20 years, when the champion stallion won the Patinack Australian Oaks (G1) with Royal Descent  and the PFD Foodservices Tasmanian Oaks with Global Balance.

Mr Quickie, a first-crop flag-bearer for the Sportingbet W. S. Cox Plate (G1)-winning stallion, claimed the Lexus Toorak Handicap (G1) in October last year, adding to his Channel 7 Queensland Derby (G1) win of 2019. 

The win was also a momentous occasion for a great family of Australian racing, as Edward Cummings, grandson of Bart, son of Anthony, and brother of James, won his first group 1 since leaving a partnership with his father and going it alone at the start of 2019. 

Duais, a homebred for Matthew Irwin and his family, won the TAB Adrian Knox Stakes (G3) at Randwick April 10, before backing up with a second in The Star Australian Oaks a week later and was freshened up ahead of this group 1 assignment in Brisbane, in an adept training performance from the latest Cummings to add his name to the Australian group 1-winning trainer list.

Sent off the favorite, Hugh Bowman took Duais straight to the back pair of the 13-runner field, a position she assumed until turning for home as the pace ebbed and flowed up front, with Ruru making a mid-race move to keep the tempo honest.

Bowman swung off heels, picking a gap between horses down the center of the track in the straight, and finished much the dominant force to win by a going-away 2 1/2 lengths ahead of New Zealand-bred duo Charms Star and Signora Nera, to cue a clench of the fist from the jockey as he crossed the line and euphoria from Cummings and his team. 

Out of Meerlust, Duais became the first group 1 winner in the Southern Hemisphere by a Johannesburg mare, despite the stallion's boasting winners of a Preakness Stakes (G1), Irish Oaks (G1), Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1), and the Middle Park Stakes (G1) at Newmarket in a broodmare sire capacity. Heineken Percy Sykes Stakes (G2) winner Jamaea became the first group 2 winner in Australia out of a Johannesburg mare in April this year. 

Meerlust was purchased by Matthew Irwin for just AU$22,000 as a yearling from the Scone May sale in 2009 and, despite claiming just the one win at Grafton in a five-race career, has been a prolific producer in the breeding barn.

Her second foal is TAB Sunshine Coast Guineas (G3) winner Baccarat Baby, while Duais, her fourth named foal, becomes her second stakes winner. Baccarat Baby was sold for AU$650,000 (US$503,919) to Spendthrift Australia as the curtain came down on her 27-start career that yielded eight wins, including two at stakes level. 

The mare has a 2-year-old sister to Duais named Amity Gal who is trained by David Van Dyke, while she was served by All Too Hard last year.