Circle Of Fire pressed his claims for top level honours with victory in the G2 Chairman’s Quality at Randwick.The son of Almanzor produced a stout staying performance to win the 2600 metre contest for his first success on Australian soil and emphasise his readiness for a crack at the G1 Sydney Cup.The English-bred Circle Of Fire had finished fourth over a mile at Flemington in his first run for Ciaron Maher and then filled a similar placing over 1900 metres at Rosehill before showcasing his staying qualities.“Hopefully all going well, we’ll go to the Sydney Cup. He’s had a brilliant prep and he’s improved every run,” Maher said.“He’s a well-credentialled stayer anyway, so hopefully he can sneak in on the minimum.”Circle Of Fire is a half-brother to the G3 San Francisco Mile winner Evening Sun with their dam the Galileo mare Fiery Sunset, who won at 2400 metres.He began his career in the colours of The Queen from the Newmarket stable of champion trainer Sir Michael Stoute and recorded a win and three stakes placings from six starts before relocating to Australia.

Homebred Almanzor filly Undaunting showed her appreciation of a step up in trip to break her maiden at Benalla with authority.The three-year-old took on the older horses in her third start and was far too strong for them at the end of 1600 metres.It was only her third appearance and co-trainer Levi Kavanagh is expecting her to be even better over more ground.“She came home really strongly so that was good to see,” he said.“She maps to us like she will appreciate even further, 2000 metres plus.”Undaunting settled three back on the fence before rider Fred Kersley got her into the clear at the top of the straight and she lengthened stride impressively to romp home by two and a-half lengths.We sold the filly to Kavanagh Racing for A$250,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and is a half-sister to the two-time winner and multiple Group placegetter War Eternal.Their dam is the Fastnet Rock mare Aleria whose brother Thorondor won four times and finished runner-up in the G2 Danehill Stakes.The Kavanagh's purchased Aleria's yearling colt by Circus Maximus from us at the Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling sale and the mare has an unraced Reliable Man juvenile named Neednoman and produced a colt by Per Incanto last season.

A quick back-up and a rise in distance proved key factors in the Michael and Matthew Pitman-trained Almanac breaking his maiden.The son of Almanzor had previously finished sixth when galloped on at Riverton over 1400 metres and made no mistake when successful over a mile on the second day of the meeting.At his sixth appearance, the four-year-old improved from back in the field across the top to corner wide and finished stoutly for rider Kylie Williams to comfortably hold the upper hand at the post.We bred Almanac and he was originally purchased out of our New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale draft for $130,000 by Tony Pike before relocating to the Pitman’s Riccarton stable.He is the fourth winner for the Zabeel mare Lazaan, including the stakes performer Divine Power, and she is a half-sister to Marchand who won twice for us and was a dual black-type placegetter.The first dam Lashed was a top-quality mare and the daughter of Encosta De Lago’s seven victories featured the Zabeel Classic, New Zealand Stakes and Waikato International Stakes at Group 1 level.We sold Lazaan’s son of U S Navy Flag to Hong Kong interests at Karaka in 2022 for $160,000 and the dam is back in foal to the Group 1-winning son of War Front.