‘She’s just got a fantastic brain and continues to improve all the time’
Marokopa Falls and Cool Aza Rene headline busy day for Te Akau on both sides of the Tasman
Twelve months ago Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson unearthed Captured By Love (Written Tycoon), a bona fide top tier filly, in Trentham’s Wakefield Challenge Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) and on Saturday Marokopa Falls (Hellbent) and Cool Aza Rene (Cool Aza Beel) will be bidding to give the stable a second successive victory when they clash in the Group 2 contest.
Both fillies enter this weekend’s race with unbeaten records to protect. Cool Aza Rene got off the mark in an 800-metre Otaki maiden on October 19, a performance she duly followed up with a last-start win over 1000 metres at Riccarton on November 13, ridden by Craig Grylls on both occasions.
Meanwhile, Marokopa Falls goes into the 1100-metre race with track experience on her side, having broken the ice first time out at the venue when saluting in a 1000-metre event on December 7, also ridden by Grylls.
If jockey bookings are anything to go by, Marokopa Falls presents as the number one seed for the tangerine team, with Grylls choosing to side with the daughter of Hellbent (I Am Invincible), who will jump from barrier two, while Wiremu Pinn will get the leg up on Cool Aza Rene for the first time and they will line up in the next door trap, three.
“Craig Grylls has ridden them both and chosen Marokopa Falls, which is usually a good indication, but jockeys have been wrong before!” Walker told ANZ Bloodstock News.
A $57,500 buy for David Ellis from the Lincoln Farm draft at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale last June, Marokopa Falls races in John Galvin’s Fortuna Marokopa Falls Syndicate silks.
“She was a very cheap buy at the Gold Coast National sale,” said Walker. “She’s a very athletic filly and she spelled at Te Akau stud after the sales before she was broken in. She really thrived on the good Kiwi grass and she’s just got a fantastic brain on her and continues to improve all the time.”
Prior to her maiden victory, the filly was seen finishing a luckless sixth of six in a Taupo trial, but despite the finishing position, Walker always had faith her talent would shine through on raceday.
“Interestingly, she went last in her first trial but she had no luck and if she had got a gap she would have won. We thought on her first start she would have been hard to beat, just because of her intelligence and the fact she has a great brain. She’s a nice filly who is definitely going places,” he said.
We thought on her first start she would have been hard to beat, just because of her intelligence and the fact she has a great brain
Marokopa Falls will lock horns with her stable compatriot Cool Aza Rene on Saturday, a filly who was also sourced at a Magic Millions auction for a similar price. The daughter Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel) was purchased by Ellis for $55,000 from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January from the draft of her breeders, Newhaven Park, where her former Te Akau-raced sire resides.
Walker said the filly has only continued to build on her first two starts and, while he admits she shows very little at home, he expects her to bring her a-game once again on Saturday.
“She was another cheap buy, who Dave bought at the Magic Millions and she has continued to improve. She’s certainly not a good track worker – she’s pretty laid back and only does what she has to, but she’s a raceday horse – she goes out there and does it,” the trainer said.
First-season sire Cool Aza Beel was crowned New Zealand’s champion two-year-old in 2019-20 following his victories in the Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m) and Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). While Cool Aza Rene is his only winner to date from four starters, two others have been placed including Cobra Club, who ran second in last weekend’s Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m).
“She’s by Cool Aza Beel who has had a brilliant start to his career at stud and we will certainly be trying to buy more of them going forward at the sales,” said Walker. “I’ve been watching the Cool Aza Beel’s and I think they’ll be in hot demand this year.”
Bringing the Te Akau theme full circle, Cool Aza Rene is out of the unraced mare Irene, herself a daughter Xtravagant (Pentire), who also sported the tangerine silks throughout his career, which included wins in the 2015 edition of the New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and the NRM Sprint (Gr 1, 1400m) the following year and, like Cool Aza Beel, was also retired to stand at John Kelly’s Newhaven Park.
Last year’s Wakefield Challenge Stakes winner Captured By Love proved herself the best three-year-old filly of her generation when she landed the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) last month and Walker believes, whatever happens on Saturday, both Marokopa Falls and Cool Aza Rene will also have more to give in their Classic years.
“They have both got very good temperaments and that is a big thing with two-year-olds, if they’ve got good temperaments they can cope and they are both similar in that department,” he said.
“Marokopa Falls is quite a leggy filly who I think will be a really nice three-year-old and you’d think Cool Aza Rene will also be a better three-year-old, being by a son of Savabeel.
“This race always throws up a very good horse. Trentham is quite a unique track, being down the chute and it normally takes a very good horse to win and let’s hope these two prove to be as good as Captured By Love, who obviously went on to win the 1,000 Guineas.”
Marokopa Falls, Cool Aza Beel and three of their rivals will be bidding to continue the good record of fillies in the Group 2, with the females having prevailed in the three most recent editions of the race.
The boys have a sole runner in the shape of the Cody Cole-trained Landlock, a gelding by Merchant Navy (Fastnet Rock), who will return to Trentham, having been last seen finishing fourth in heavy ground at the track.
A couple of races later, Te Akau’s Ocean Miss (Ocean Park) will be bidding to add a second victory – and a first at stakes level – to her record when she tackles the Eulogy Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m).
The daughter of Ocean Park (Thorn Park) followed up her November maiden win with a third-placed finish in the Wellington Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m), finishing 2.3 lengths behind the runner-up Island Life (Vadamos), who reopposes on Saturday.
Walker said the filly, who was bought by Ellis at Karaka for NZ$60,000 in 2023, was likely to improve when stepped up in distance, which is likely to be on her next start in the Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m), formerly known as the Royal Stakes, at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
“I think when she gets to 2000 metres, which will probably be at her next start in the Royal Stakes [Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes] on New Year’s Day, you’ll see an even better filly,” he said.
“She has to turn the tables on Island Life, but she’s come through her third-placed finish the other day and as we get up in trip she’ll just continue to really go on with it.”
Ocean Miss is in her first preparation and Walker is hopeful she will continue to improve the older she gets.
“She was educated at two, but needed a bit more time and she’ll keep on improving year on year. Ocean Park is a very underrated stallion and he can leave a very high–class stayer, which hopefully she will prove to be,” he said.
“It is great for her ownership group, which is an all ladies syndicate and Karyn Fenton-Ellis has done a really great job organising some fillies syndicates and it will be a great thrill for them if she could win this.”
Walker and Bergerson will also saddle older horses Perfect Scenario (Iffraaj) and Cognito (So You Think) in the Manawatu Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and Manawatu Cup (Gr 3, 2300m) respectively.
Dual Group 3 winner Perfect Scenario will be dropping back to 1400 metres following two third place finishes over 1600 metres, while Cognito, who was most recently sighted finishing third in the Counties Cup (Gr 3, 2100m), will be having his start over further than that distance.
“He’s [Perfect Scenario] been a marvel year in and year out,” said Walker. “He turns up and continues to race up to his best. Full credit to all the staff, it shows you have the right systems in place when horses are still racing at his age and still as sound as the day when we broke them in.
“The staff behind the scenes work so hard to keep these sorts of horses healthy, happy and racing well. You’d love a stable full of horses that try like him and it doesn’t matter if it is wet, dry or otherwise.
You’d love a stable full of horses that try like him
On Cognito’s chances, the trainer said: “He ran well in the Counties Cup, but just what his distance will be, we’re not 100 per cent sure yet. But he’s certainly well in at the weights, he gets into this race on the minimum and we certainly do think he has a good win in him at some stage.
“He was a Wellington Guineas winner as a three-year-old, but now he is an older horse, he’s more mature, he’s looking more like a mile-and-a-quarter or even a mile-and-a-half horse.”
Across the Tasman, Te Akau will be aiming to win the Pakenham Cup (Listed, 2500m) with I’m A Dirty Rascal (Galileo), who will be having his first run for the stable having been bought by Ellis on Inglis Digital in November for $95,000 from former trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Bred in the purple, being a brother to Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Serpentine, who is now trained out of Tulloch Lodge, I’m A Dirty Rascal, a one-time winner for Aidan O’Brien in Ireland when known as King Of The Castle, has yet to score from a total of 13 starts in Australia but Walker is hoping a change of scenery could reignite a spark in the seven-year-old.
“He came across from Gai and Adrian’s and with some of these older horses, a change of scenery can do them the world of good. I’ve just been out at the jumps at Cranbourne and he jumped this morning [Thursday] and he was good,” said the trainer.
“Everyday he walks out of the box we’ve got him thinking, ‘Wow, I wonder what I’m doing today?’ He’s been to the beach this week, he’s done some jumping and he’s been out to the sand track, everyday you try and keep him guessing and hopefully the change of scenery can spark him back into life.”