Worldwide interest in Oaks winner Pulchritudinous
Last Saturday’s New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) heroine Pulchritudinous (Wrote) could head to Sydney for the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) at Randwick next month, it just may not be with current trainer Chad Ormsby.
Waikato-based Ormsby has fielded plenty of enquiries about the filly over the last week from prospective buyers throughout the world, and he is keen to strike a deal.
The daughter of Wrote (High Chaparral) was purchased by the trainer, under his Riverrock Farm banner, out of Milan Park’s 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 2 Yearling Sale draft for $32,500 as a pinhook prospect for the Ready To Run Sale later that year, however, she failed to meet her $50,000 reserve.
That initial disappointment has turned out to be one of the best things to happen in Ormsby’s training career, with the now three-year-old filly having won three of her seven starts, including the Oaks and the Lowland Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) a week prior, and nearly $390,000 in prize-money.
Now a strong prospect for the Australian Oaks ahead of a potential Cups campaign in the spring, Pulchritudinous has become a filly in demand.
“She is really well, I am really happy with her. You wouldn’t know she has had a run, she could go again,” Ormsby said.
“There are a couple of interested parties from overseas that are interested in buying her. We will see what we can come up with there first [before making any plans].
“They are from all parts of the world at this stage – Australia, America and Japan. It is quite encouraging that a New Zealand Thoroughbred is on the map.
“Outside Orchestral, she looks the standout [three-year-old filly in New Zealand], and they might even meet in the Australian Oaks.
“A lot of them [prospective buyers] are looking longer term for a Caulfield Cup/Melbourne Cup sort of horse. That is the mould she fits, especially when she is running out 2400 metres pretty strongly.
“We haven’t got too long before we need to make a decision on whether she goes to Sydney, but it is just a matter of the process that we have got to ride with at the moment.”