Outstanding WA galloper Western Empire again showed his true grit and surged through the A$3 million prize-money barrier by winning the G3 Hyperion Stakes at Pinjarra on Saturday, 7 June.
The rising eight-year-old son of ageless Darley stallion Iffraaj (GB) travelled three-wide for most of the 1,600m event and appeared off the bit at the 400m pole but still managed to reel-in race favourite Magnificent Andy in the final stride.
Triple Missile came from nearly last to grab third place but was no match for Western Empire and Magnificent Andy, who coincidentally had finished in the same order in the G3 Gold Rush over 1,400m at Ascot in Perth last December.
Trained by Grant and Alana Williams at Karnup, Western Empire was having only his second start in that six months and had suffered a slight training setback leading into Saturday, further emphasising the merit in his performance.
Bred by original owner Bob Peters out of the Stakes-winning mare Western Jewel, Western Empire recorded his 10th Black-Type victory at distances between 1,100m and 2,400m and took his overall record to 11 wins and eight placings from 30 starts for prize-money of A$3,004,550.
His win came just a few weeks after Francee (Iffraaj-Calveen) captured the Listed Rangitikei Cup over 1,600m at Trentham in New Zealand, where Iffraaj currently sits inside the top 10 on the stallions’ list for prize-money won by progeny.
Iffraaj has now sired 1,242 winners of 3,657 races worldwide worth just over 68 million pounds, including 103 Stakes-race winners of 194 Black-Type events.
The stallion stood this Northern Hemisphere season at Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud at Newmarket in England for a service fee of 10,000 pounds.
