Turn Me Loose’s juvenile filly too slick in Sistema Stakes
The retiring Murray Baker and his training partner Andrew Forsman provided a toast to the past and a glimpse to the future after lightly raced filly Lickety Split (Turn Me Loose) upstaged her more fancied rivals in yesterday’s Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in New Zealand.
Hall Of Fame trainer Baker will bring his long and successful career to a halt on May 1, leaving Forsman to go it alone running the Cambridge-based stable, and yesterday’s victory was the former’s 57th at the highest level and the latter’s 25th.
Lickety Split held off the challenge of the Jamie Richards-trained Te Akau stablemates, the Karaka Million (RL, 1200m) winner Dynastic (Almanzor) and Maven Belle (Burgundy), who were a nose and a head behind the filly in a blanket finish.
Jockey Matthew Cameron settled the filly outside the leader Alabama Gold (Turn Me Loose) with favourite Dynastic settling behind the leaders before moving three-wide on the turn into clear running.
Forsman suggested post-race that the positive tactics employed by Cameron on Lickety Split played a key role in the Group 1 breakthrough.
“We didn’t come here to run second or third, we really wanted to have a good crack at it,” Forsman said.
“Matt rode her aggressively. He gave her every chance and she is pretty tough. She was game as I thought the colt (Dynastic) had her cold at the top of the straight and we were going to battle on and run a nice placing, but to her credit she is all heart.”
Lickety Split came into Sistema Stakes calculations after winning a two-year-old maiden at Ellerslie on February 19, but Forsman admitted that her rapid progression had caught he and Baker off guard.
“She has always looked a nice type, but to be honest we were sort of hoping we could win a two-year-old race and then tip her aside as she will make a lovely three-year-old in the spring,” he said.
“We will see how she pulls up now before deciding on anything further, as we don’t need to panic as she is obviously a very valuable filly now.”
Agent Paul Moroney, after buying a filly by Windsor Park Stud’s Turn Me Loose at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale on Friday, foreshadowed that the former Baker and Forsman-trained Group 1 winner was a stallion on the rise.
And it didn’t take long for the stallion, whose oldest crop are three-year-olds, to record his maiden Group 1 winner as a sire courtesy of Lickety Split on the same card in which another of Windsor Park Stud’s resident stallions, Shamexpress (O’Reilly), had daughter Coventina Bay land the Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Lickety Split is raced by a syndicate which includes the filly’s breeders, Wentwood Grange’s Dean Hawkins and Windsor Park’s nominations manager Nick Hewson. She is a daughter of the Listed-placed mare She’s Slinky (Handsome Ransom), a $7,000 buy at the 2016 NZB Mixed Winter Sale who has produced three foals to race for two winners. She has a yearling filly by Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit) and is in foal to Windsor Park’s first-season shuttler Circus Maximus (Galileo).
Turn Me Loose is also the sire of stakes winners Alabama Gold, who was beaten by five lengths in yesterday’s race, and Turn The Ace.
“It’s terrific to train the first Group 1 winner by Turn Me Loose who is doing a great job for Rod Schick and the team at Windsor Park Stud. He was a top-class horse for the stable and won Group 1s at a mile on both sides of the Tasman,” Forsman said.
“We have a number of his progeny in the stable that we like, and he has been firing on all cylinders of late with winners in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong. We actually trained Turn Me Loose’s first winner, first stakes winner and now first Group 1 winner, so he has been really good to us.
“I think the majority of his stock will excel as three-year-olds and above, including this filly who has done a marvelous job to win a Group 1 at two.
“It is also great to get a big result for a good group of owners who have supported the stable, including Nick Hewson. She is a valuable filly now and no doubt we will celebrate tonight.”