In a race packed full of quality mares, the Guy Walter-trained Balmont (Commands) started as one of the outsiders of the field, but nonetheless the mare produced a stellar effort to drive through along the rails to score by a head in the Listed Nivison Stakes in Australia on October 15.
The second new Stakes winner for Commands in the space of a week, after the Listed victory of two-year-old colt Jimando at Caulfield, Balmont became the 43rd international Stakes winner for the son of Danehill.
Bred and raced by Stuart Lamont’s Kooringal Stud at Wagga, Balmont is out of the Lake Coniston mare Grail Queen. The Lamont's have had success in the past with Commands, having bred and sold G1 Winter Stakes winner Russeting.
A top ten stallion year-in-year-out in Australia, Commands is coming off a highly successful 2010-11 racing season which saw him earn honours as the leading sire of individual winners setting an unprecedented benchmark of 155 winners.
Standing the current season at Darley Kelvinside in the southern hemisphere, Commands has been represented by recent Stakes winners Ambidexter, Lamasery and the exciting Rain Affair.
