Cya Art causes boilover in Group One Len Smith Mile

Cya Art(NZ) (Art Major) caused a boilover when taking out the Group One Len Smith Mile (1609m) at Menangle last Saturday.

The seven-year-old gelding had placed in the Group One Inter Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final  (3157m) at Albion Park in July, but had been unplaced in his subsequent four starts.

Despite drawing the ace marble in Saturday’s mile, he was unwanted by punters, who let him drift to $126 on the tote.

Cya Art was burnt for early speed and settled three back on the pegs where he was put to sleep by driver Joshua Gallagher while Kingman set a solid tempo upfront.

Turning for home, Gallagher was able to find a path along the marker pegs, and Cya Art was able to incrementally improve on the inside, hitting the lead with 50m to go and held on to score by a half head over Captains Knock, and set a new race record of 1:47.5.

Cya Art was initially offered through Wairau Farm’s 2019 NZB Standardbred National Yearling Sale draft at Karaka where he was purchased by Stonewall Stud for $27,500.

In the care of trainers Steve and Amanda Telfer he won five and placed in 17 of his 47 starts in New Zealand before his sale to Australia.

He won a further two races for Jason Grimson across the Tasman, including the Group Three Shirley Turnbull Memorial (2790m), before returning to New Zealand where he finished runner-up to Don’t Stop Dreaming in last year’s Group Three Junior Free-For-All (2600m).

He was subsequently sold to Aleisha Gallagher for A$25,000 and joined the stable of KerryAnn Morris. He has proven to be a bargain buy for Gallagher, with Saturday’s win ticking his earnings for this new connections past $150,000.

“He’s been a real marvel. We only really bought him to chase the carnival Cups,” Joshua Gallagher said.

“To go to Brisbane and run third (in the Inter Dominion) and come back here and win a Len Smith Mile, you don’t get much bigger.”