3 minute read
Mark Zahra wasn’t the only Australian link to Tuesday night’s Queen Anne Stakes winner.
Mark Zahra was the headline Australian attachment to Day 1 at Royal Ascot, but there were other Aussie links to the horse he rode to victory in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes (1609m).
Docklands is the once-inauspicious younger half-brother to a popular gelding who raced under the same OTI Racing colours in Australia.
Harbour Views developed a cult following after landing a betting plunge with a debut win at the 2019 Warrnambool Carnival, the first of seven wins from 18 starts.
His biggest win came in the Listed Tontonan Stakes, while he was also placed in a Group 2 Feehan Stakes.
Harbour Views, a son of Le Havre, is the reason Australian syndicator Terry Henderson and Blandford Bloodstock bought Docklands, a son of Massaat, for just €16,000 – which was around just AU$25,000 at the time – at the Tattersalls September Yearling Sale in 2021.
Docklands and Harbour Views are both out of the Mark Of Esteem mare Icky Woo, who never saw the racetrack but has proven herself a handy producer.
She is also the dam of Multiplex mare Ickymasho, who won 10 of 40 starts across Europe and America and was a multiple Stakes winner in the latter, while she has thrown two other winners.
Docklands, like Harbour Views, has also raced in Australia, campaigning in Melbourne last spring, where the Harry Eustace-trained entire finished a distant fifth behind Via Sistina in the Cox Plate (2040m) before a sixth placing in the Champions Stakes (2000m).
Tuesday's narrow win over former star three-year-old Rosallion, which atoned for a second placing in last year's Queen Anne Stakes, was Docklands' third victory from 13 starts and his second at Royal Ascot following Britannia Stakes success in 2023.
Prior to the Queen Anne Stakes, a return trip to Australia had been pencilled in, with a shot at the Group 1 Champions Mile at Flemington the main target, but that is now unlikely.
The five-year-old is now likely to remain in Europe to target more Group 1 races and aim to bolster any stallion appeal.
