Snitzel freshman stallion Shamus Award off the mark with first winner

Snitzel's influence deepened a little further on Monday when his first-season sire son Shamus Award supplied his first winner.

The two-year-old who got Shamus Award off the mark was Mookareena with a professional half-neck success in a 5f handicap on debut at Wagga Wagga.

Mookareena was bred by Riverdene Stud and is the first foal out of the winning Flying Spur mare Puerto Vallarta, a half-sister to Group 3-placed Mukareena.

Barbara Joseph and Paul Jones's filly was sold to Joseph Jones Racing at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for A$40,000 (£22,000/€25,000).

Golden Slipper success for Snitzel endorses import of Spill The Beans

Shamus Award had an unusual racing record for trainer Danny O'Brien in that he broke his maiden in one of Australia's biggest races, the Cox Plate, where he beat Happy Trails and Fiorente at odds of 20-1.

The seven-year-old scored in only two races and the other was also a prestigious top-level event – the Australian Guineas, in which he took the scalp of Criterion.

Shamus Award stands at Widden Stud in the Hunter Valley and has been represented by only five runners so far.

He covered 165 mares at a fee of A$27,500 in his first season and has remained popular, with 157 covers in 2017.

Shamus Award was one of the first sons of the great Snitzel to retire to stud. Snitzel is represented in the British stallion ranks by Spill The Beans, who shuttled to the National Stud in Newmarket for the first time this year.

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