Coolmore had earlier pulled the plug on a seventh straight southern season for Thunder Gulch (Gulch -- Line of Thunder, by Storm Bird).The final flight list from its Ashford division to Australia this year is Bianconi, Fusaichi Pegasus, Giant's Causeway, High Yield, Johannesburg, Royal Academy, and Tale of the Cat. plus Black Minnaloushe and Stravinsky to New Zealand.
Ashford Stud stallions Hennessy and Thunder Gulch will not make the shuttle trip south to Coolmore Australia. Hennessy (Storm Cat -- Island Kitty, by Hawaii) was taken off the flight due to an elevated temperature.Although well ahead of his illustrious sire on this season's general earnings list at home, Hennessy had not been invited south since 2001 when his first crop failed to fire.Hennessy's southern runners turned things around in the Australian fall when first crop male Grand Armee won the $2.5 million (Australian funds) Doncaster Handicap (Aust-I). Second generation turk Half Hennessy belatedly started to realize his potential with a runaway victory in the $500,000 Queensland Derby (Aust-I).