Aga Khan Arc Sale graduate makes immediate impact in Australia

Tim Clark believes European import Eliyass, a son of La Havre, has the scope to make his presence felt in the spring after dominating on his Australian debut in the Listed Lord Mayor's Cup at Randwick on Saturday.

While many former European horses take a preparation to acclimatise to local conditions, the five-year-old made an immediate impact for his new trainer Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

Trailing the solid tempo set by stablemate and race favourite Sir Lucan, Eliyass cruised up to his rivals in the straight and put them to the sword, streaking clear to beat Hopeful, with Williamsburg third.

"He got himself into a good spot just back off the speed, so he had an economical run throughout and when he peeled out from the 600, he towed into the race nicely and won with some authority," said Clark. 

"You'd like to think there is a bit more to come from him in the future and he could potentially have a really light campaign now and a quick turnaround to the spring. You never know what races he could end up in.”

Eliyass was bought by Astute Bloodstock’s Louis Le Metayer for €330,000 at the Arqana Arc Sale last year.

The Aga Khan homebred, out of Azamour's daughter Edilisa, won four of his six races for Jean-Claude Rouget, and finished runner-up in the other two. The highlight was a Listed race strike at Nancy last September under Cristian Demuro, a couple of weeks before his sale at Saint-Cloud.

Subscribe to make sure you never miss updates from Australia, New Zealand and beyond and to have ANZ Bloodstock delivered to your inbox every day