Poetic Champion (NZ)
2 g Super Seth – Regally Blonde by Royal Academy
O: Gsa Bloodstock Pty Ltd
B: Gsa Bloodstock Pty Ltd
T: Tony Pike
W: M J Concept & Construction Ltd Maiden, 950m, October 7, Hawera
Waikato Stud’s first-season sire Super Seth (Dundeel) was handed his first individual winner when Poetic Champion made a hugely promising debut in a 950-metre maiden at Hawera on Saturday.
Prepared by Cambridge-based trainer Tony Pike, the juvenile gelding jumped well and followed the front-running odds-on favourite Cognoscenti (Castelvecchio) throughout most of the race.
Turning for home under a strong hold from jockey Craig Grylls, Poetic Champion loomed large with 300 metres to run and bounded clear to the line, winning by an eased-down six and a quarter lengths over Skymax (Ferrando), with a further half-length back to Cognoscenti in third.
“He’s a real little beauty, he knows what he’s here for and he’s been a dude from day one,” Pike’s stable representative Mark Hills said.
“From his trial at Cambridge, his turn of foot was good and his jump-out the other day was good, he’s a real little professional.”
Grylls was also very impressed with the two-year-olds race-day debut, which followed a trial win on the Cambridge synthetic track last month.
“He jumped really good and sat outside the leader, he was travelling well but once I straightened him up and gave him a squeeze he absolutely took off,” the jockey said.
“He’s not big but he’s quite well put together and strong for his size, he’s a very nice little galloper.”
Poetic Champion was retained to race by his breeders GSA Bloodstock, who were also the previous owners of his sire, after being passed in when not reaching his $80,000 reserve at this year’s Karaka Yearling Sales.
Out of the winning Royal Academy (Nijinsky) mare Regally Blonde, Poetic Champion is a half-brother to the stakes-placed winner Zaakhira (Redoute’s Choice) as well as fellow winners Bobby Dazzler (Choisir) and Northuldra (Choisir).
Super Seth, who won the 2019 Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) by a nose over subsequent six-time Group 1 winner Alligator Blood (All Too Hard), was retired to Waikato Stud in 2020 and stands at the Chittick Family’s Matamata nursery for a fee of NZ$35,000 (plus GST).