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Darley stallion’s two Oaks winners have come from just four starters
James McDonald has stuck with Scarlet Oak in the Queensland Oaks, even though the champion jockey sounded unconvinced about her staying credentials after her last-start win in The Roses.
"She feels like a miler to me but she is extremely talented and her talent is really going to have to shine through in two weeks," McDonald said after making the most of a cosy run to win a 2000-metre race that included several flashing light runs among the beaten brigade.
But if the champion jockey is looking for something to boost his confidence ahead of Saturday's 2200-metre Group 1, he should look no further than Scarlet Oak's sire's ability to throw an Oaks winner.
Kermadec is chasing back-to-back Queensland Oaks after the win of Amokura last year.
That was the Darley stallion's second Group 1 Oaks success, having produced Willowy to win the VRC Oaks in 2021.
Remarkably, they are among only four Oaks starters for the son of Teofilo.
The others were by the same horse, Montefilia, who was beaten into third place as a $1.80 favourite in the 2020 VRC Oaks, while she ran fifth in the following year's ATC Oaks.
All up, there have been 72 individual sires provide the winner of a Group 1 Oaks race in Australia since the turn of the millennium, with Kermadec one of 16 stallions to have provided the winners of at least two Oaks.
Thirteen of those 16 won their Oaks with different horses and the only stallions to produce more individual Group 1 Oaks winners than Kermadec reads like the who's who of Australasian bloodstock.
Zabeel and Redoute's Choice have seven Oaks wins apiece in the 2000s, while Fastnet Rock and Shamus Award have three each.
Kermadec's biggest win came in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) and he never raced beyond 2040m, but it should not shock that he can produce a stayer.
His father, Teofilo, is a son of Galileo and last year saw Without A Fight become his third winner of the Melbourne Cup, having won earlier editions with Cross Counter and Twilight Payment.
While Montefilia never won at Oaks, she is a four-time Group 1 winner, with the 2400m The Metropolitan among her elite-level victories, while he is also the sire of Toorak Handicap winner Tuvalu and Singapore champion Lim's Kosciuszko.
