'Bart' Wins Australia's First GI of Season

Black Heart Bart signaled the start of Australia's group I slate for the 2016-17 season in fine style when he easily captured the Memsie Stakes (Aus-I) Aug. 27 at Caulfield.

Ridden by Brad Rawiller for trainer Darren Weir, who sent three other runners in the race, Black Heart Bart scored by 1 1/4 lengths from former Australian Oaks (Aus-I) winner Rising Romance, with Weir-trained Mahuta third. The 12-horse field also featured Weir's 2015 Melbourne Cup (Aus-I) victor Prince of Penzance, who finished 11th after a troubled start.

Black Heart Bart, who waited behind a swift pace before dispatching the front-runners, stamped himself as a possible threat to star mare Winx in the Cox Plate (Aus-I). She is the hot favorite for Australia's premier weight-for age event in October.

When the pacesetters faded in the stretch, Black Heart Bart was up to engage Rising Romance and Mahuta with a furlong to run and then drew clear for a handy win.

"He's an absolute ripper—a proper racehorse,'' Weir told the Melbourne Herald-Sun about Black Heart Bart, a son of Scenic Lodge Stud resident stallion Blackfriars, who posted his second group I win after taking the Darley Goodwood Handicap (Aus-I) in May at Morphettville. "This horse is bloody bomb-proof. He's sound. He's not much to look at—big and raw boned. He's just a great racehorse. It wouldn't matter what you ran him in, he'd run well."

Black Heart Bart, raced by a partnership, covered the Memsie's 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs) in 1:23.93 on turf rated as good to take his record to 13-9-2 from 32 starts.

The Cox Plate is run at 2,040 meters (about 1 1/4 miles) Oct. 22 at Moonee Valley.

Durham Lodge Thoroughbred Stud is the breeder of Black Heart Bart, whose dam is the winning At Talaq mare Sister Theresa, a half sister to prominent New Zealand sire Savabeel, as well as Savannah Success, a group I winner in Australia and New Zealand.