Dan Baroness, a home-bred graduate from Blue Gum Farm’s 2007 Melbourne Premier yearling draft and a member of Statue Of Liberty’s first crop of foals, has repaid her owners with a Group 3 win in the Champagne Stakes over 1,200 metres at Moonee Valley on September 13. Trained by Lee Freedman and ridden by stable jockey Dwayne Dunn, Dan Baroness put paid to her ten quality rivals with a decisive sprint at the top of the Moonee Valley straight that saw her swoop down the centre of the track to land the Group race.

Dan Baroness, a first crop Statue Of Liberty foal strides clear for a Group win

“I’ve always had a pretty good opinion of her,” said Freedman after the race. “She’s been a bit low key. She’s been good on the gallops at home and I thought her first up run was good (a close up fourth in the Listed William Crockett Stakes). She had a better run today and that was the difference. This filly was competitive through the autumn. She won a race at Sandown and she should have won a listed race over 1,400 metres at Flemington where she ran a very close and unlucky second. It’s nice to win as she is a lovely filly and the owner, Bernard Lee, is a client of my brother Michael in Singapore.”

Jockey Dwayne Dunn was equally impressed with Dan Baroness who now has a record of two wins and four placings from nine starts, having never finished further back than fifth. “This horse has promised us the world and delivered us an atlas and everyone was sort of potting me for picking her over Romneya last start, but she had worked extra well. She’s never run a bad race but she’s shown me at home she’s got so much more and it’s good to see she’s done it in a race. She exploded quickly when I went for her off the bend but once she hit the front she clocked off,” added Dunn.

Dan Baroness, pictured here four weeks prior to the
Inglis Premier Yearling Sale

A $70,000 yearling purchase, Dan Baroness was selected by experienced judge Denis Roberts acting as agent for Mr Lee. She is out of the Rubiton mare Weekend Surprise, a three-time winner at two who in turn is out of the Godswalk mare Seaside Attraction, a winner of six races and a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Pride Of Rancho. Dan Baroness is Weekend Surprise’s third foal to race and all three are winners. She has a Statue Of Liberty full-brother to Dan Baroness entered for the 2009 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, she delivered a lovely colt foal by Churchill Downs on August 16 and has an early positive scan to the same stallion again this season.

Weekend Surprise canters next to her Churchill Downs colt