Bomber Under Fire – A Fascinating Duel

The battle for dominance in the first crop stallion class never fails to capture the imagination, and this season the race for the rookie stallion honors has all the makings of a hotly contested affair.

According to the latest NHRA stats, the main protagonists appear to be Lancaster Bomber and Fire Away, who are currently engaged in a titanic battle with little separating them in terms of revenue.

Remarkably, both are sons of War Front, Danzig’s most successful stallion son, apart from Danehill and Green Desert.

A champion on the track and also a leading American stallion, War Front’s influence as a sire is becoming increasingly evident through his sons War Command, Declaration Of War and US Navy Flag. Lancaster Bomber and Fire Away are his first sons to be studded in South Africa.

A Gr1 winner from a classic family, Lancaster Bomber arrived at Newmarket after a season at the National Stud but unfortunately his tenure at Drakenstein Stud was short and his death at the early age of seven came as a great shock.

Ironically he was the first to sire a Stakes winner, his Glen Kotzen-trained daughter Rascova leading a pure filly to the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Met Day. Although he’s only sired three winners so far, that number is sure to grow given that there’s a good number of placed runners knocking on the door.

Lancaster Bomber will be represented at the forthcoming National Yearling Sale with an impressive 26 youngsters from his second and last crop, including offspring of Gr1 winners Inara, Gabor, Siren’s Call and Chestnuts N Pearls and a full brother to Rascowa.

Fire Away out of Wilgerbosdrift is just behind Lancaster Bomber in terms of earnings, but he is far ahead in the number of winners as six of his first crop offspring greeted the judge.

Leading the way is filly Luna Halo, who gilded her father’s fledgling career with a stormy win at the listed East Cape Fillie nursery in Fairview.

Fire Away’s first crop runners also include Fire ‘N Flames with stakes. Runner-up in the Listed Storm Bird Stakes, the Johan Roux-trained youngster was his father’s first winner and recently celebrated a second career win.

Interestingly, his most recent win came at the expense of Wernars’ own bred Pure Predator, who just so happens to come from another freshman sire, New Predator.

This Australian-bred grandson of the esteemed Galileo, a two-time Gr2 Sprinter/Miler winner driven by the Wernars, is on his way to a Flyer with his first runners and already has four winners from just seven runners to his credit.

To say that New Predator started his stallion career under the radar would be an understatement.

Notwithstanding the fact that he confused it with the very best on the track, one can only speculate that the lack of a Gr1 win on his resume has meant that he was shunned by the Western Cape’s stallions.

Anyway, he ended up in KZN and it would be fair to say he didn’t have access to the same quality of mares as Fire Away and Lancaster Bomber, making his early success all the more remarkable.

At this stage he seems to be the wild card in the pack and who knows could well give the leading pair some competition if he continues in a similar fashion.

Among the ten lots of New Predator cataloged for National Sales are a half-sister to Gr1-shown Gr3 winner Neptune’s Rain and foals out of champion mares The Angelus, Alinga and Winter Passion.