Stakes success for Spreydon Lodge Sales Graduates

It was a terrific weekend for a pair of Spreydon Lodge Yearling Sales graduates, with Franco Ankara and Franco Sinatra both snaring stakes race wins in New Zealand.

The Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained 3-year-old Franco Ankara (pictured) unleashed his trademark finishing burst to claim the Listed $50,000 Listed Sires’ Stakes Foundations Pace at Addington Raceway on Friday night.

It was the Captain Crunch gelding’s third win from just five starts this season, taking his career earnings to $63,604.

Sold for $48,000 at the 2024 NZB Standardbred Christchurch Yearling Sale, Franco Ankara is out of the American Ideal mare After Party, making him a half-brother to Group 2 winner Sherlock, and from the maternal family of reigning NZ Horse of the Year Republican Party and current season Group 1-winning juvenile Tour Party.

Then on Sunday, it was the turn of another Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trainee, Franco Sinatra, who boldly free-legged his way to an impressive victory in the Group 3 Hannon Memorial at Oamaru.

The winner of last season’s Group 2 Junior Free-For-All on Cup Day, Franco Sinatra has now won 15 races and $267,719 in stakes money, and has likely cemented his spot in this year’s New Zealand Trotting Cup, with his Hannon win improving him to ninth on the starting order rankings.

A graduate of the 2021 NZB Standardbred Christchurch Yearling Sale, Franco Sinatra was purchased for $55,000 by Kentuckiana Lodge.

By Captaintreacherous, the well-bred Franco Sinatra is the best-performing foal of the 10-win Western Ideal mare, San Rafaella.