When the going gets tough…
Weather bombs and heavy rains mean that winter is well underway and racing is suddenly presented with deep tracks that mean your horse will need to be fit and tough to slog through the bog.
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” is the old adage and Grangewilliam Stud’s Zed (Zabeel) had a day to remember at Saturday’s Trentham meeting. The Zeds are tough.
The South Taranaki stud provided four of the winners on the day, three by Zed plus the stud’s newest acquisition, Derryn (Hinchinbrook), celebrated his first winner.
With major works taking place at Awapuni, the Rangitikei Gold Cup (Listed, 1600m) was this year transferred to Trentham, sometimes known as the punter’s graveyard, and Verry Flash (Zed) did cause something of an upset.
One of the slowest away, Verry Flash was second last turning into the straight but was pulled wide and made steady gains on the pack. His momentum was good, however, and travelling best he overhauled the leader inside the last 50 metres to bag his maiden stakes victory.
Verry Flash is adept in testing conditions. Eight of his nine wins have been on tracks described as heavy. Probably his best previous effort was in finishing a strong third in last year’s Winter Cup (Gr 3, 1600m) at Riccarton, a race he may tackle again even though his owner, Nick Bishara, felt that a jumps career was the horse’s future.
Bishara’s hopes of a jumps career for Verry Flash are probably realistic, but he just might postpone it for another season with the performance on Saturday suggesting that more wins on the flat are well worth pursuing.
It is well known that a change of environment and schooling over jumps can give a thoroughbred a new lease of life. This win was achieved fresh-up after an eight–month break with two recent trials under new trainer Kevin Myers. Watch this space.
Talk about tough
The writer was at Trentham on the Wednesday 12th of July 1972, the feature race that day being the Parliamentary Handicap, then a Listed race over 11 furlongs, won by Skoota (Tsaoko).
The open sprint, held two races later, was the Members’ Handicap over seven furlongs and was won by Mystic Dancer (Proud Look). You may already be asking: And what is the significance of Mystic Dancer? It is the time she ran for the race, a staggering 1:39.50 for the seven furlongs. A deep track might result in something around 1:33, so the track that day was a total quagmire.
The mare had to be tough. That slog was one of her eleven wins in an extensive 151–race career. After her flat career she went on to score in the Awapuni Hurdles, the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles plus ran second in the Wellington Hurdles and third in the Grand National Hurdles.
Strenuous racing did not impede her stud career, with the mare producing Newbury Star (Imperial Seal) who, like his mother, won 11 races including four stakes, his best being the Geelong Cup (Listed, 2400m) during a fine run of form in the spring of 1991 when he scored three Listed races in the space of four weeks.
Repeat award?
It is no secret that Verry Flash is the older brother (by one year) of Verry Elleegant who has been in the headlines this past week due to a change of trainer. The champion mare is off to France to be prepared for a tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m).
Their dam, Opulence (Danroad), is the current New Zealand Broodmare of the Year. Verry Flash’s Listed win might be enough for Opulence to successfully defend her title, remembering that Verry Elleegant’s fantastic Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) victory was recorded during the current season.
Opulence lives at Grangewilliam Stud in Waitotara.
Big impression
The South Taranaki settlement of Waitotara must have made a big impression on Sonia Rogers, wife of Capt. Tim Rogers, founder of Grangewilliam Stud as well as Airlie Stud in Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Sunday’s Tattersall’s Gold Cup (Gr 1, 1m 21/2f) provides proof. The winner, Alenquer (Adlerflug), descends from a mare named in honour of the area.
Waitotara (the mare), bred by Sonia Rogers, was a 1979 daughter of Habitat (Sir Gaylord) and lived long enough to produce her last foal in 2002, that being Wind In Her Hair (Turtle Island). Wind In Her Hair was a half-sister to a Listed winner and three stakes–placed winners, all in Germany.
Wind in Her Hair foaled a Listed winner as well as Wild Blossom (Areion), dam of Sunday’s Gold Cup victor Alenquer. In ten starts, the four-year-old has now won five including four Group races and was twice Group 1–placed prior to his breakthrough at the elite level.
Magic touch
It’s almost as if trainer (and breeder) Allan Sharrock owns some sort of thoroughbred crystal ball.
The very astute New Plymouth trainer guided Shez Sinsational (Ekraar) to four Group 1 wins in a glittering race career and the mare has since produced two stakes winners, namely Sinarahma (Darci Brahma) and House Of Cartier (Alamosa), both Group 3 winners this season.
Shez Sinsational’s sister Repenting also contributed this season, with Our Hail Mary (Ocean Park) taking out the Listed Marton Cup (Listed, 2200m) in which House Of Cartier finished second.
The magic touch seems to be evident with Sharrock’s purchase of Sophmaze who provided Grangewilliam’s Stud’s newest stallion Derryn with his first raceday success.
Sophmaze was offered as the last of ten lots by Derryn at last year’s NZB Karaka Yearling Sale and Sharrock parted with $50,000 for the filly, the second top price for the then first season sire.
The filly was having her third start and arrived at Trentham with two third placings in her only two starts thus far, with a 12-week break since her previous run.
She showed a nice turn of foot from the second last before the junction to improve along the fence, straightening soon after before then finding the lead inside the final 400 metres. In front, she never relented and held off all challenges by a half length.
The filly’s value has shot up after that success but not just because of the win. Since Sharrock bought the filly, two very close relatives have stolen the racing headlines in the shape of Levante (Proisir) and Maven Belle (Burgundy).
Sophmaze’s dam Miss Isle (Bachelor Duke) was more than useful on the track, winning five starts (two at Te Rapa) and securing a Listed third placing in the Metropolitan Trophy (2500m) at Riccarton. Sophmaze is her first winner. She had a dead foal in 2020, missed to Proisir (Choisir) in 2021 and unfortunately slipped just last week to Derryn.
Kiwi Chronicles caught up with Grangewilliam’s Mark Corcoran who said: “That’s the highs and lows of breeding. We will send her back to Derryn in the spring. The cross works as Sophmaze was my pick of the first crop which is why, when Allan bought her, I wanted to stay in.”
“The mating with Proisir would have been interesting but supporting our own stallion makes more sense. He is from a sire family which includes Not A Single Doubt and Snippets but it’s great to have his first winner on the board,” said Corcoran. “The feedback from trainers has been very good. They like them so I hope Sophmaze is just the first of many.”
Since purchasing Sophmaze, Miss Isle’s half-sister, the brilliant sprinting mare Levante, has bagged two Group 1s, the BCD Waikato Sprint (1400m) and the Telegraph Stakes (1200m). In a hit-and-run visit to Flemington in March, Levante finished a highly meritorious fourth in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m). Horse of the Year is a very real possibility for Levante.
Levante’s performances are surely a bonus to Sophmaze, however, we are not finished as Miss Isle’s other half-sister, Doyenne (Kilimanjaro) has also contributed strongly to the family’s fortunes.
Doyenne managed a Listed placing at Riccarton and won six times but has surpassed that at stud, producing the best two-year-old filly of the current season, Maven Belle, a home-bred from Te Akau Stud.
In five starts Maven Belle has tasted defeat just once and that was an unlucky third in the Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). Otherwise, she won on debut, added a Group 3 at her next start and then convincingly took out the Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) to remain undefeated before heading to Ellerslie.
At Awapuni, for the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), Maven Belle had to survive a protest from the connections of Wolverine (Tivaci) when shifting out very late in proceedings but the stewards deemed that the incident was insufficient to reverse the placings.
Levante and Maven Belle will no doubt return next season but from Sharrock’s perspective, he and Sophmaze’s owners already have a very valuable filly who may provide Derryn with his first stakes winner in next month’s Castletown Stakes (Listed, 1200m).
“That’s the plan,” added part-owner Corcoran. “Allan (Sharrock) said she pulled up well so the listed race at Wanganui is the next target, all going well.”
Derryn’s fee for the upcoming season remains at $5000.
Thriving
The rains continue to pelt Australia’s East Coast causing Doomben’s Group 1 meeting to be postponed which turned the focus to Morphettville’s final day of their autumn carnival.
On the undercard, the former New Zealand-trained and winner of last year’s edition of the Rangitikei Gold Cup (Listed, 1600m), Belle Plaisir (Proisir) put up a super performance when winning the RA Lee Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m).
Her chances looked dim before the field straightened as she was second last in a compact field. However, when the field fanned she dived through along the inner, challenged for the lead at the 200m, and then fought bravely to get the win.
Offered by Fairdale Stud at the 2018 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 2) Belle Plaisir realised $32,000. She won on debut as a three-year-old and again two starts later, wrapping up her first season of seven starts with a fourth placing in the Desert Gold Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m).
At four she took a while to return to winning form, scoring back-to-back wins at her 11th and 12th starts, the latter being the Rangitikei Gold Cup run at Awapuni.
Since her transfer to Victoria the mare has thrived with three fair runs last spring before being put aside until last month when she won the Queen Of The Hills (1400m) handicap at Oakbank. Saturday’s win is her sixth and takes her earnings to just over $225,000.
Given she likes some cut in the track, or worse, the mare may head north to rain-soaked Brisbane and could start in the Magic Millions National Classic over 1600 metres, worth $500,000.
Her Australian-bred dam Eden is a Zeditave (The Judge) three-quarter sister to Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) winner Chlorophyll (Zeditave) while her grandam, Pleasure Garden (Foolish Pleasure), is a half-sister to Garthorn (Believe It), winner of the Metropolitan Handicap (Gr 1, 8f) at New York’s Belmont Park.
The next dam, Group 2 winner Garden Verse (Cyane), is a three-quarter sister to Obeah (Cyane), grandam of the tragically lost champion Go For Wand (Deputy Minister), winner of seven Group 1s.
Earlier promise fulfilled
Similar to Verry Flash, Ocean Beyond (Ocean Park), winner of the Straight Six (Listed, 1200m) at Flemington on Saturday, has benefitted from a change of environment.
Very promising as a spring three-year-old, winning the Mitchell McKenzie Stakes (Listed, 1200m) at Moonee Valley, Ocean Beyond took a year to regain winning form last November at Ballarat yet was lame after that win.
Three ordinary starts after that saw a change in plans and the gelding was transferred to the country establishment of Andrew Bobbin. At his second start from new quarters, Ocean Beyond finished best after being in behind a wall of horses at the 300 metres. “I was just looking for a way to get out without causing any interference, and I had a lapful of horse,” said jockey Linda Meech. “I was travelling the best of anyone at the 200 metres.”
In 13 starts the rising five-year-old has four wins to his name and his purchase price of $60,000 is looking like great value. He was withdrawn from the 2019 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale then sold privately after being passed in at the 2019 NZB Ready To Run Sale.
He is one of three winners from three to race from his dam Frankly (Pins), a sister to Listed winner Keano and half-sister to Aroon (Volksraad), grandam of New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Madison County (Pins) as well as last week’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) third, Detonator Jack (Jakkalberry).
His grandam is a half-sister to champion sire O’Reilly (Last Tycoon) and therefore represents the classic Waikato Stud family descending through Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Courtza (Pompeii Court) from 1989 NZ Broodmare of the Year, Hunza (Pakistan II).
Price is right
After Jungle Magnate (Tarzino) posted his sire’s first Group 1 win in the South Australian Derby, trainer Mick Price hinted that he has a few more promising prospects by Tarzino (Tavistock) in his red-hot stable.
True to his word, Natural Mystic stepped out at Flemington over 2000 metres and kept his unbeaten record intact when scoring very nicely in the Three-Year-Old Handicap.
The gelding won at Pakenham on debut but on Saturday, racing wide for a good part of the journey, showed some class when pulling clear late, his first try in town. One for the black book.
Although by Tarzino, he was conceived in New Zealand but foaled in Australia and offered at the 2020 Inglis Premier Sale in Melbourne where Price snapped him up for $65,000.