WS Cheers Home 2YO Classic Winner (February 21 2010)

The WS-bred and sold Icepin posted a fitting success in the Gr 3 juvenile feature at Saturday's New Plymouth meeting. The Matamata farm was the sponsor of the Two-Year-Old Classic and celebrated an appropriate victory from the son of Pins.

The talented chestnut, who provided trainer Mark Walker with his third win in the race, was originally passed in at Karaka last year before his post-sale purchase by prominent owner and racing administrator Herbie Dyke for $40,000. Out of the O'Reilly mare Ice Maiden who hails from the family of resident WS stallion and Gr 2 Ascot Vale Stakes winner Scaredee Cat, Icepin has progressed at a great rate since an inauspicious spring debut.

He was unplaced after bucking out of the gates and then finished a brave fourth in Listed company at Te Rapa before beating the highly-regarded Belles Fast at Ellerslie. He went to New Plymouth off the back of a strong run for second in the Karaka Million behind Sister Havana, who was also born and raised at WS.

Pins, who currently leads both the New Zealand and Singapore Sire Premierships, enjoyed further success in Australia on Saturday when his daughter Tootsie claimed the Gr 3 Mannerism Stakes. She is yet another winning product of the Pins-O'Reilly cross with her dam Hyades a half-sister by the WS stallion to the stakes winner La Rose Noir. Tootsie was bred by Garry Chittick and is now a seven-time winner for the Michael Moroney stable.