Multiple Group 1 winner Contributer sired his first winner when Lion's Roar won the Good Luck Andrew Bensley 2YO Showcase Handicap (1200m) at Wagga on Thursday.
Fittingly, the Champion Thoroughbreds-raced gelding was prepared by John O'Shea, who trained Contributer to win both the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) and Group 1 Ranvet Stakes (2000m) when head trainer at Godolphin. “Contributer was a very special horse to me and hopefully he will continue to be,” O'Shea said. “I was delighted to train his first winner.”
Sold by Wellfield Lodge at New Zealand Bloodstock's 2019 Karaka Book 2 Yearling Sale, Lion's Roar was secured by O'Shea and Jason Abrahams Champion Thoroughbreds for $65,000. “From my perspective, we really liked two of them at the sales that year, this guy and another colt that Godolphin bought for $250,000,” O'Shea said. “Our fella we really like and just going off the trials of Jeronimos, the Godolphin horse, it looks like he has got plenty to offer too.”
Contributer stands at Simms and Margaux Davison's Mapperley Stud in Matamata and the son of High Chaparral has 67 live foals from his first crop which are now two-year-olds. “I really think he is a sleeper of a stallion and we think that Lion's Roar has got some lovely potential during the spring,” O'Shea said. “One of the reasons that endeared him to us at the sales was I thought he was the spitting image of his father. “He will be set now for the Spring Champion Stakes (Group 1, 2000m) and I know he will run the trip, he handles wet ground and he has got plenty to offer.”
Ridden by Shaun Guymer, Lion's Roar backed up his good trial when a close-up second to Group 1 JJ Atkins (1400m) aspirant Wild Ruler and won by 0.4 length despite showing signs of greenness. “He didn't get a lot of things to go his way to be fair and Shaun just said he wasn't overly comfortable in the heavy ground, he was a bit lost, all of the things you would expect from a young staying prospect, but he just had too much class on them and it showed,” O'Shea said.