AUS STAKES WINNER'S SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION

Progressive three-year-old Bend The Knee, whose third dam is the talented South African stakes winner Lady’s Delight, showed considerable courage when landing Saturday’s Listed Amanda Elliott Stakes at Flemington.

Trained by John O’Shea, the Snitzel sired colt Bend The Knee was coming off a second to Snitzonfire on the Kensington track at Randwick on October 20. Both McEvoy and Hugh Bowman on Port Louis elected to cut the corner before easing out to the centre of the track.

In a stirring duel over the final 200 metres, Bend The Knee handed connections of the Maurice (JPN) colt Port Louis another heartbreaking defeat by a half-head with the Press Statement colt Daily Bugle coming from last to finish a further one and a half lengths back in third.

Bend The Knee was ridden to victory by Kerrin McEvoy, who said after the win, “I was a little bit lucky that my horse quickened from an unfavourable spot,He is a nice young horse that has progressed nicely. He enjoyed himself with blinkers on and John is having a great run.”

The Snitzel colt, a $300 000 buy from the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, has now won twice from just four starts.

He is the best of three winners from as many to race out of the talented Encosta De Lago mare Kneeling.

The winner of the Listed MRC William Crockett Stakes, Kneeling is a half-sister to the outstanding Hong Kong performer Winner’s Way and Listed Ortensia Stakes winner That’s a Good Idea.

Kneeling herself is a daughter of the three-time winning, stakes-placed Sunday Service, a Sunday Silence daughter of talented South African racemare Lady’s Delight. Sunday Service also ranks as the granddam of dual G1 winning sire Ace High.

Lady’s Delight won six times, including twice at Listed level, in South Africa, where she also finished second in the G2 Voyager Stakes and third in the G1 Gosforth Park F&M Challenge.

A daughter of Local Talent, Lady’s Delight’s own dam You’re My Lady was a half-sister to the dam of legendary sire Danehill (grandsire of Snitzel himself).