Grangewilliam stallions in the spotlight on extraordinary Saturday
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • March 29th, 2025 10:00 AM • 3 min read
Within the space of two scarcely believable hours, a pair of Group One races at Trentham and Rosehill put Grangewilliam Stud’s stallion roster up in lights.
The first cab off the rank was Derryn, whose double on Saturday’s Trentham card included a career-first Group One winner courtesy of standout filly Leica Lucy in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks.
Grangewilliam principal Mark Corcoran – on-course at Trentham to soak up the occasion – hardly had time for that result to sink in before the running of the Golden Slipper at Rosehill. Arguably the most coveted prize on the Australasian breeding landscape, the A$5 million showpiece was won by the lightly raced Marhoona – a half-sister to Grangewilliam’s new stallion Hilal.
For good measure, former Grangewilliam stallion Zed was credited with another new stakes winner when Our Jumala took out the Gr. 3 Cuddle Stakes, Derryn gelding Doctor Askar completed a hat-trick on the Trentham undercard, and Corcoran’s father John shares in the ownership of runaway Riccarton two-year-old winner Zelia.
“It’s the sort of day that doesn’t come around too often for a studmaster,” Mark Corcoran told RaceForm on Monday.
“My wife actually asked me on Saturday morning what I wanted to see happen, and I told her I wanted Derryn to sire the Oaks winner and Marhoona to win the Golden Slipper. She told me to get real!
“Then she asked which one of those would mean more, and I said probably the Slipper, because it’s just so important in the Australasian racing and breeding industry. To have a stallion on our roster that is himself a Group One-performed two-year-old in Australia, and now a half-brother to a Slipper winner, is incredibly exciting.
“We got a really good book of 137 mares to him in his first season last spring, so we can’t wait for his first foals to arrive. You always take a big risk when you buy a stallion. We were extremely happy when we managed to secure him, and we’re even happier now.”
Hilal was a three-time winner on the racetrack including the Gr. 2 Stan Fox Stakes, and he was a placegetter in the Gr. 1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes, Gr. 1 Champagne Stakes, Gr. 1 Randwick Guineas and Gr. 2 Hobartville Stakes. Superstar Anamoe beat him in three of those events.
Hilal is by the globally influential sire Fastnet Rock out of the Encosta de Lago mare Salma. Herself unraced, Salma is the dam of four stakes winners from five foals to race – Marhoona, Hilal, and Listed winners Salateen and Trojan Harbour.
Further down the pedigree page, Hilal’s fourth dam is the extraordinary Nijinsky mare Dancing Show. The American-bred mare produced Group One winners and sires Umatilla and Hurricane Sky, while subsequent generations have unveiled the likes of Redoute’s Choice, Al Maher, Platinum Scissors, Manhattan Rain, Shoals, Groundswell, Tom Kitten, In Italian and Barneswood Farm’s current star Desert Lightning.
Incredibly, Marhoona was one of three Group One performers for the family on Saturday. William Reid Stakes winner Schwarz has Dancing Show as his fifth dam, while New Zealand Oaks runner-up Dubai Gold is a great-granddaughter of the blue hen mare.
“It’s just a phenomenal family – one of the very best in the Australian Stud Book,” Corcoran said. “It just keeps leaving winners and black-type winners.
“I’m still pinching myself that we managed to get Hilal, and things couldn’t have gone any better with him so far. I’m really looking forward to the ride over the next few years.”
Hilal stood for a $7,500 service fee last spring alongside fellow Grangewilliam residents Derryn and The Bold One.
Saturday was a career-defining day for Derryn, whose headline-grabbing daughter Leica Lucy edged out Dubai Gold in a hard-fought finish to the Oaks. Leica Lucy has now had seven starts for six wins and a second for more than $1.01 million in stakes. She has won five consecutive black-type races and was a runaway winner of the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series.
“Ticking off that Group One winner is obviously so important for a stallion, and it was fantastic to see Derryn do that with Leica Lucy in a prestigious classic like the Oaks,” Corcoran said. “She’s obviously a very high-class filly, bred and part-owned by a great Taranaki couple in the Crofskeys. They’ve been fantastic clients of ours for a long time, so it was a perfect result.”
Derryn finished 40th on the New Zealand sires’ premiership last season but has risen to ninth in 2024-25, with 15 winners, two of them stakes winners, and total progeny earnings in excess of $1.7 million.
Arion Pedigrees statistics credit Derryn with 46 winners overall from 95 runners. Leica Lucy headlines a black-type group that also features Gr. 3 Spring Sprint winner Spencer, Malaysian star Antipodean and Listed Castletown Stakes heroine Sophmaze.
“Derryn is getting better and better,” Corcoran said. “He’s been chipping away and just keeps leaving winners week in and week out. He’s had four winners from five runners in Hong Kong, plus he’s obviously got a very good horse in Malaysia. He’s ticking a lot of boxes and people are starting to take notice.
“If the Slipper and the Oaks weren’t enough on Saturday, we also had another very impressive Derryn winner at Trentham with Doctor Askar – bred and raced by another good supporter of ours from just up the road (Joanne Moss) – plus Our Jumala winning the Cuddle Stakes for Zed and that very good two-year-old winner Zelia.
“My father bought Zelia as a weanling. He’s in a syndicate along with Lisa Allpress’s husband Karl and their son Josh, plus David Walsh and some of their mates. They’re having a lot of fun and she won pretty impressively with the blinkers on.”
Photograph at the top of the page: With her hard-fought New Zealand Oaks win over Dubai Gold, outstanding Derryn filly Leica Lucy was part of massive day for Grangewilliam Stud at Trentham last weekend. Photo Credit: RaceForm
