Each week Timeform’s John Ingles looks at the pedigree of a winning newcomer which has the potential to earn some Black Type.
Those with experience in Sandown’s novice contest over seven furlongs last Friday looked vulnerable to a newcomer and the one that was all the rage in the betting was the Queen’s Dubawi colt Dukedom trained by John & Thady Gosden. He duly shaped with plenty of encouragement and is sure to improve on his first effort, but on the day he proved no match for another making his debut.
SONNY LISTON (Timeform rating 94p), in contrast, was an 18/1 shot but belied those odds to win in style under claimer Marco Ghiani. He was very noisy and green beforehand and wasn’t the quickest away from the stalls but made smooth headway from the rear to lead over a furlong out and quickened clear for an impressive five and a half length win over the odds-on favourite.
By the Prix du Jockey Club winner Lawman, Sonny Liston was bought for 60,000 guineas as a yearling. Three of his siblings have achieved smart ratings (113 to 118 to be exact) on the Timeform scale, including his full brother Banksea who won at up to a mile and a quarter in his prime for Luca Cumani.
The best of four winners out of the dam, Stars In Your Eyes, who won a maiden at Wolverhampton over a mile and a half, is Sonny Liston’s half-sister Dame Malliot who, two years ago this week, won the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. Their four-year-old half-brother Zabeel Champion completed a hat-trick in middle-distance handicaps for Mark Johnston in the spring and more recently finished a good third in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Dame Malliot carried the colours of Anthony Oppenheimer, as did Sonny Liston’s grandam Apache Star who was a useful winner up to nine furlongs. The wider family has been particularly successful for Oppenheimer, with Sonny Liston’s distant relatives including Derby and Arc winner Golden Horn who appears at the foot of the page in his pedigree. Sonny Liston should have no trouble staying a mile later this year and further still next season.