Coeur Volante (NZ) Collects Group Three Prize

2 October 2023

A lightly raced Karaka graduate has thrown her name into the mix for next month’s Group One Thousand Guineas (1600m) with an impressive black-type debut in Friday night’s A$200,000 Group Three University Food Group Scarborough Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley.

coeurvolante
Coeur Volante (NZ) pictured as a Karaka yearling

Coeur Volante (NZ) (Proisir) was bought for $90,000 by Paul Moroney and Ballymore Stables from the Prima Park draft in Book 1 of Karaka 2022. She has now had three starts for two wins, earning A$158,750 for her big syndicate of owners.

Coeur Volante began her career with two races during the winter, running a fast-finishing fourth over 1000 metres at Sandown in late May before scoring a stylish maiden win at the same venue on June 14.

The Scarborough Stakes was her first start since then, and she produced a brilliant late burst from well back in the field to score a narrow but emphatic win.

“She was aided by there being a lot of speed on,” Moroney said. “It looked like she was going to get a good run through, but then she was held up. I thought it was a really good effort.

“We purchased her as a yearling at Karaka, left her in the New Zealand stable and we gave her two trials, where she had a third and a second. It was after the second trial I thought she was pretty good.

“We bought some of the people who owned her in New Zealand out, while others stayed in. We put new people in from Australia and brought her over.

“Every horse we buy over there, we usually leave them there and educate them in barrier trials before we bring them over.

"We brought this filly back to target the Thousand Guineas, and that's where we'll head towards. We put her in the paddock for a while in the middle of winter, and I wondered whether it was the right thing when she came back and wasn't eating. But she's come right in the last week, so hopefully it'll be upwards from here.”

Coeur Volante was bred by Fairdale Stud and became the 14th individual stakes star for the outstanding stallion Proisir, who has a dozen two-year-olds in the catalogue for the upcoming New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.

The dam of Coeur Volante is Shanina (Testa Rossa), who has a perfect record as a broodmare with both of her two foals to race being stakes performers. Coeur Volante’s half-sister Hasstobemagic (NZ) (Scissor Kick) was runner-up in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) as a two-year-old.

Photo: Bruno Cannatelli

Vendor Prima Park
Purchaser Paul Moroney Bloodstock/Ballymore Stables (Victoria)
Breeding Proisir – Shanina
Sale Lot 568, Karaka 2022 Book 1, $90,000
Bred by Fairdale Stud (2007) Ltd