Manhattan Rain – Catalyst Fire 2yo Filly

They say that every horse has a story, and for this filly by Manhattan Rain from Catalyst Fire, her story for us started at the 2025 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale.

We inspected her specifically at the request of Adelaide trainer David Jolly who noticed that the first Dam on the page, Catalyst Fire, is a half sister to the very good sprinter that David trained for Grand Syndicates, called CALYPSO REIGN.  A dynamic sprinter, Calypso Reign won 8 races in our Grand Syndicates colours including a top win on the Group 3 Spring Stakes (now The Behemoth Stakes) and also running a ripping 3rd in the Australia Stakes at Group 2 at Moonee Valley. All up he won over $480,000-not bad for just a $17,000 yearling purchase!

So, as well as being a good, racy type who moves well, this filly is also well related! She’s the first foal of a mare that won 3 races to 1600m, and there’s plenty of black type all the way through her pedigree page.  In fact, it’s a prolific winner producing pedigree. Every dam on the page is a winner, and of the three dams to have had foals to race, they’ve all produced an impressive 6 winners each, and importantly, each has also produced stakes class horses!

We ended up buying her with the intention of sending her to South Australia to be trained by David. Since then, however, David has decided to sell his long-established training property in SA and has significantly wound down the numbers he has in work, and therefore we made the decision to keep the filly in WA and offer her through Belhus Racing Stables.

Interestingly, with Manhattan Rain’s recent move to stand at stud in Western Australia, it means that this filly is also eligible for the Westspeed Platinum Bonus Scheme, widely recognised as one the better, state-based breeders incentive bonus schemes in Australia-and that means more potential prizemoney FOR YOU!

We’ve appointed Stephanie Bakranich to train this filly for the new syndicate. At the time of writing, Stephanie boasts a winning strike rate of over 20% for 2025 which is very high by normal industry standards. Steph loves her horses and goes to great detail to ensure that they get everything they need to show their best. You’ll enjoy her company on raceday, and I’m very confident in saying that you’ll enjoy having your horse trained by Stephanie.