Mornington today sees a number of interesting first starters, but perhaps none more so than Sensibility. The 3yo filly is a daughter of the grand stallion, Redoute’s Choice out of an unraced US bred mare called Fleeting Touch. She was knocked down for an impressive $260,000 at Inglis Easter, so there will be plenty watching today’s debut with interest.
There is probably little to be said about Redoute’s Choice who has been a dominant stallion in Australia for some years. Perhaps it is fair to say that his recent performances don’t quite match his early crops, and it seems that his progeny aren’t quite the early 2yo’s that we once saw. When stallions have a large increase in fees, as in the case of Redoute’s Choice, we often see a different type of mare covered. It seems that this hasn’t always been the best result for Redoute’s. To be fair, though, we see him competing with many of his own sons at stud, which represents a fairly unique position.
In the case of Sensibility, the issue of Redoute’s sons is critical because we see that she is a three quarter sister to Running Tall who is by Redoute’s Golden Slipper winning son, Stratum. To compare the two, we see that Running Tall has a pedigree that features three lines of Northern Dancer in the fifth generation together with crosses of Buckpasser and Natalma. In the case of Sensibility, we see the same crosses, but all brought forward one generation. Interestingly, there are no duplications through the portion of the pedigree of the dam of Stratum in Bourgeois who is a daughter of Luskin Star out of a Vain mare. These speed lines result in Running Tall having a dosage profile of [0.97/4.00] [11-7-12-0-0] compared to Sensibility [0.72/2.54] [13-8-24-1-0]. Given the higher classic ratings in particular in the dosage profile of Sensibility, we would expect her to be more of a classic 3yo type than her older brother. With today’s race being over 1200m, we would be happy to see Sensibility finish off the race well, as no doubt there will be an eye on some of the bigger 3yo races later in the Spring. We might not expect her to be a staying type, and will probably suggest that her best performances will ultimately be around a mile or so, but this has not always stopped this type of filly performing at classic distances against her own age and sex.
Sensibility as a yearling