New Zealand-breds enjoy dream day in Australia
History will tell you that New Zealand-breds are famed for their staying power, sought for their Classic generation potency, while their precocious antipodean cousins from across the Tasman are better known for their early, sprinting prowess.
But yesterday, New Zealand breeders celebrated both a $101 boilover in one of Australia’s most iconic sprints and a juvenile winner of a feature Group 3 as the Kiwis took Flemington by storm.
It was a five-year-old mare named Roch ‘N’ Horse (Per Incanto) that beat the Australians at their own game when she became just the second New Zealand-bred winner in the last 37 years of the time-honoured Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m), handing her often underrated sire Per Incanto (Street Cry) his fifth individual Group 1 winner.
Meanwhile, two-year-old Ruthless Dame spearheaded an across-the-card treble in Melbourne and Sydney for Cambridge Stud’s late stallion Tavistock (Montjeu), once again highlighting the indelible void left in the industry by his untimely death in 2018.
The son of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) was handed his 35th individual stakes winner courtesy of two-year-old Ruthless Dame’s victory in the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Flemington, while another of his daughters, four-year-old Flying Mascot, added a third stakes win to her CV in the Matron Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) at Flemington. In Sydney, his son Stockman was victorious in the Sky High Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) at Rosehill.
However, it was the Mike Moroney-trained Roch ‘N’ Horse that was the headline act of a brilliant day for horses bred across the Tasman.
Bred and raced by Little Avondale Stud, who stand the mare’s sire Per Incanto (Street Cry) in New Zealand, Roch ‘N’ Horse went into yesterday’s contest with four victories in her homeland to her name, including in the Power Turf Sprint (Listed, 1200m), while she was most recently seen finishing runner-up in the Telegraph Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on January 15, beaten narrowly that day by Levante (Proisir), who finished fourth in yesterday’s contest.
Sent off the outsider of the 17-runner field, Roch ‘N’ Horse powered home on the far side to defeat The Astrologist (Zoustar) by a neck, while the Group 1-winning mare September Run (Exceed And Excel) – who finished tenth in last year’s edition of the Group 1 – was another nose away in third. Fellow New Zealand raider Levante finished fourth and was the first home on the grandstand side of the track, a group led by Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) for much of the 1200-metre straight.
In winning the race, Roch ‘N’ Horse also provided jockey Patrick Moloney with his first Group 1 win and he dedicated the victory to his father, who he described as his “biggest supporter and critic”.
“It’s massive, my fiancee Jess is here and I don’t think she’s seen me cry,” an emotional Moloney told Racing.com.
“It’s more for my family, who put a lot of effort in me, whether it was my mum carting me around the shows early doors and dad.
“This one is as much for dad as it is for me, (he’s) my biggest supporter and critic and best mate. It’s just massive and I can’t thank everyone enough.”
“It’s just massive. I can’t thank everyone enough and the horse today, she was just in the zone.
“She waltzed out of the yard (and) had a strut to her. She was down at the barriers quiet as a lamb and for a horse that I trialled during the week, she was pretty hot. But today, she was so calm and conserved her energy.
“Things couldn’t have worked out any better. I said to Mike early that I thought we’d go down to the fence and follow the fence. It is as good as anywhere and we got a beautiful cart on the back of September Run and I peeled her to the outside early enough and she just went bang for me.
“The owner, Catriona, bred this horse and said that ‘I wouldn’t have travelled for 48 hours and struggled to get here if I didn’t think it was a chance’. That just filled me with confidence.”
Meanwhile, trans-Tasman trainer Moroney was quick to pay tribute to his New Zealand training partner Pam Gerard and said this latest victory made up for Tivaci’s (High Chaparral) luckless fifth place finish in the Newmarket in 2017.
“We were pretty luckless not to win one with Tivaci in his year, he probably should have won. At times, it takes a while to get it back and we finally got it back, so that’s great,” Moroney said.
“It’s a great effort by Pam (Gerard) in New Zealand, she sent the horse over here. We gave her a little jump-out there and decided to skip the Oakleigh Plate. We were here in time to run in it.
“She settled in well, trialled well and had been pretty luckless not to win a Group 1 before now, really.
“I thought the New Zealand sprinters were up to it. A lot of people didn’t think they were, but I was pretty sure with what I’ve seen there that they were.
“We were always going to get to Australia, it was just a matter of which carnival. We thought this was the right place for her.”
While Catriona Williams of Little Avondale Stud was on-hand at Flemington, husband Sam watched the race from a pub in Turangi as the Masterton breeder ventured home from the six-day Karaka Sales, which concluded yesterday.
“Last week with Belluci Babe winning a Group 3 in Sydney was unbelievable, but winning a Group 1 in Australia over 1200 metres – you’ve got to be kidding me,” Sam Williams said.
“We were halfway home from Karaka and stopped at the pub in Turangi to watch the race. The whole pub knew we were there. At the 300-metre mark when she made her move, we were screaming.
“We shouted the bar and we were getting out of there before they wouldn’t let us out of the town.
“One bloke asked us if we’d like to buy a house there, so we thought we should be on our way.”
Roch ‘N’ Horse was retained by Little Avondale after failing to make her $40,000 reserve during Book 2 of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale in 2018. She is the only winner out of the unraced Cecconi (Encosta De Lago) mare Rochfort, herself a half-sister to Group 3 scorer Weissmuller (Handsome Ransom) and Listed winner Travolta (Handsome Ransom).
One of 23 stakes winners by Per Incanto, Roch ‘N’ Horse joins Shadows Cast, Dal Cielo, Santa Monica and Bonham as the stallion’s other top-flight scorers. He stood for a fee of $25,000 (plus GST) last season.
Earlier in the afternoon, Ruthless Dame got the New Zealand-breds off to the best possible start in Melbourne when she landed the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes for the in-form Ciaron Maher and David Eustace team.
Last seen making a winning debut over 1300 metres at Sandown Lakeside, the two-year-old filly showed her class yesterday when beating Nanagui (Sebring) by a neck with Mumbai Jewel (I Am Invincible) another head away in third.
Eustace said the team had considered running the filly in yesterday’s VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), but the stable felt the 1200 metres against fillies was a better option.
“All our data suggested there were some pretty sharp two-year-olds and that gave us the encouragement to go, especially over the 1200 metres here down the straight,” Eustace said.
“She was very strong late. She travelled really nicely and got a beautiful toe into the race. She showed plenty of tenacity when Nanagui came to her girth and she picked up late. She’s a smart filly.”
The co-trainer revealed the filly would now head to Sydney for a crack at either the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick on April 2 or the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at the same track on April 9.
Ruthless Dame (2 f Tavistock – Ruthless Lady by Keeper) was purchased by her trainers for $90,000 at Book 1 of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale last year from the draft of Curraghmore.
The filly is one of two winners from two to race out of the Listed-placed Keeper (Danehill) mare Ruthless Lady, herself a daughter of Group 2 scorer Lady Dehere (Dehere), the dam of Group 2 winner Oracy (Zabeel) and Listed winners The Lady (Stravinsky) and Lady Maroal (Power).
Lady Dehere is a half-sister to three-time Group 1 winner Sea Siren (Fastnet Rock), Group 3 scorer Oratorio (Stravinsky) and Listed winner Discorsi (Galileo).
Ruthless Lady’s 2020 filly by Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) was purchased by John Bary for $40,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling Sale in 2021 and last year she produced a filly by Waikato Stud-based sire Super Seth (Dundeel), while she has most recently been covered by Ocean Park (Thorn Park).
If Ruthless Dame lines up in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes next month, she will likely clash with the Danny O’Brien-trained Let’srollthedice (Dundeel), who advertised his credentials for the Sydney Group 1 with a fine victory in yesterday’s VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes at Flemington.
A debut winner at Bendigo on heavy ground on March 1, Let’srollthedice built on that performance with another impressive victory, beating Man In The Mirror (Not A Single Doubt) by three-quarters of a length. Yaki Ishi (Maurice) was a further neck away in third.
“He’s now a Group 2-winning colt but he did handle the Heavy (10) the other day, so it would be tempting enough to look at the Sires’ or the Champagne there in Sydney,” O’Brien told Racing.com.
The son of Arrowfield Stud-based Dundeel (High Chaparral) was purchased by John Foote Bloodstock for $240,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale from the Stonehouse Thoroughbreds draft and O’Brien was quick to heap praise on the well-respected bloodstock agent following the colts win yesterday.
“He always was a lovely yearling. Thanks to John Foote for selecting a really nice colt for us and a lot of the owners are around Geelong.
“He came through our system and obviously a Dundeel that we were never going to push. He had a trial or two in January and then went to Bendigo and did the job there. He’s only going to improve.”
O’Brien revealed the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick on April 16 would also be considered for the colt.
Bred by Segenhoe Stud, Let’srollthedice (2 c Dundeel – Hannah In A Hurry by More Than Ready) is out of More Than Ready (Southern Halo) mare Hannah In A Hurry, whose two other foals to race have also been winners.
Hannah In A Hurry – who has once again been covered by Dundeel – is a daughter of Group 2 winner Viennetta (Pins), making her a half-sister to Group 3 scorer and sire Golden Archer (Rock Of Gibraltar).
In winning yesterday’s Group 2, the Let’srollthedice handed Dundeel his 17th individual stakes winner and he stood for a fee of $66,000 (inc GST) at Arrowfield last season.