Loch Katrine proving a bargain buy for Bay owners

Loch Katrine is at full stretch as she crosses the line half a length in last Saturday’s listed Champagne Stakes at Pukekohe. Photo / Supplied

Loch Katrine, a horse that cost her Napier owner Paul Sullivan and his partners Annie Phillips, Dave Paterson and Bruce Browne a mere $1300 on gavelhouse, took her stake earnings to $50,960 and put a black-type success next to her name with a gutsy win in last Saturday’s $80,000 Champagne Stakes at Pukekohe.

The Ardrossan two-year-old filly was having just her third start when she stepped out in the listed 1600m event, following strong-finishing minor placings at her first two starts.

On the strength of those two placings, the filly came in for strong support in the Pukekohe feature and, aided by a good ride by top jockey Michael McNab, she duly delivered.

McNab settled Loch Katrine sixth in the eight-horse field in the early stages and improved around the field to challenge the leaders rounding the home turn.

She hit the front early in the straight and out-slogged The Matador and To Catch A Thief in the heavy track conditions to score by half a length.

“She got through the ground okay, but she’s not very big and is pretty good on a better track, so I made the point of trying to keep her in fresh ground,” McNab said.

“I kept her rolling and she was just so tough the last bit.”

“I let To Catch A Thief scoot up my inside at the half-mile, because that wasn’t a spot I wanted, and he took me into the race at the right time.

“She certainly deserved that win.”

Loch Katrine is trained at Matamata by Daniel Miller, who also heaped plenty of praise on the filly.

“A very, very gutsy effort,” he said.

“I was quite happy with her coming into the race, although it is always a bit of a question mark when they first cop these heavy tracks, but she had trialled well in the wet.”

Miller said he was approached by Paul Sullivan and his partners to seek out a horse for them and he told them to buy this filly off gavelhouse.

“I said to them that if we could get some black type with her, then she is looking pretty good and it is still all ahead of.

“She is lightly raced and to get her maiden win in listed company is just a bonus.

“You would think she will get a mile as a three-year-old and probably further,” Miller added.

Loch Katrine is by promising Waikato Stud-based sire Ardrossan out of the Zenno Rob Roy mare Cong’er, who was the winner of five races and all of them in heavy track conditions.

She was originally sold for $6000 at the 2022 Karaka yearling sales before being reoffered through the online gavelhouse auction site.

Loch Katrine became the fourth black-type race winner for Daniel Miller while McNab continued his great winning strike rate this season by taking out all three black-type races at Pukekohe last Saturday.

John Jenkins pictured at Hastings Racecourse. Photo / NZME

He won the listed Champagne Stakes on Loch Katrine, the Gr.3 $1000,000 Championship Stakes (2100m) on Cheval D’Or, and the Gr.3 $120,000 Manco Easter Handicap (1600m) on White Noise.

He has now chalked up 17 black-type wins this season, which breaks his previous best figure, and horses he has ridden this season have amassed more than $4.1 million in stakemoney.

Parkes back in top form

Jockey Johnathan Parkes has wasted no time getting back in the groove after a much-needed break from riding, as he works his way closer to a significant milestone.

Parkes resumed riding at Otaki on Thursday last week after a six-month break, and was back in the winner’s circle on Sunday when guiding Kabugee home for Te Akau Racing in a three-year-old 1200m event at Awapuni.

It pushed the 34-year-old a little bit closer to one of his major career goals.

“My first goal is to get to 1000 career wins. I’m six away from 1000, so it would be nice to tick that off the list,” Parkes said.

“It was satisfying just to get the first one back at Awapuni, and good to get one for Te Akau as well. They have supported me for a long time.”

Parkes had a decent season in 2021-22, with his 40 victories including the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) aboard Asterix. But as the new season came along, he found himself in need of a break.

“It’s good to give the body a break. Towards the end I was getting a bit stale from wasting,” Parkes said.

“With the break I’ve definitely come back better. I’ve come back with a hungrier mindset.”

Parkes didn’t move away from racing completely during his time away, spending a good deal of time riding trackwork.

Aegon taking on HK’s best

Sunday’s Champions Day in Hong Kong looms as an important milestone for talented New Zealand trainer Andrew Forsman, who will saddle his first international runner outside Australasia when Aegon takes on that continent’s best in the HK$20 million Gr.1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin.

Gr.1-winning Aegon’s Sha Tin tilt will come exactly a year since 40-year-old Forsman became a solo trainer after his mentor and training partner of a decade, famed New Zealander Murray Baker, retired.

Forsman part-owns Gr.1 New Zealand Guineas (1600m) winner Aegon, whom he selected at the Karaka Yearling Sales, with the Zame family, and says while he has been to a couple of international meetings, he has never raced a horse in Hong Kong.

“It’s great to be part of it,” Forsman said.

“Aegon is certainly going into a different environment on a long ‘prep’ and does seem at a bit of a disadvantage, but he is pretty well travelled and laid back and it looks like he has settled in quite well.”

Of his six races this preparation, which netted a win in the Gr.3 Moonga Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield in October and a narrow second in the Gr.1 Captain Cook Stakes (1600m) back in New Zealand in December. The five-year-old’s last race was in the lucrative All-Star Mile (1600m) at what can be a tricky Moonee Valley track in March, where he finished ninth of 15, a result that was perplexing for Forsman.

“We really don’t know what to make of that and whether it was the Valley that tripped him up, we are not really sure,” Forsman said.

“But he has come through it really well and had a good jump-out at Flemington and we put the blinkers on him which is something we’ve always wanted to do but just haven’t had the right opportunity.”

Forsman has engaged Australia’s premier jockey, New Zealand expatriate James McDonald, and said the only negative is that it will be the star’s first ride on the gelding.

“But he is pretty straightforward and it will be a small field and you just hope by putting the blinkers on it switches him on and he gets him to travel at that important part of the race,” he said.

Legarto is Filly of the Year

Throughout a history spanning more than 50 years, the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year series has repeatedly unveiled superstars of the racetrack and breeding barn. But the 2022-23 edition of the series turned out to be one for the ages, with three fillies going on to win Gr.1 races in either Sydney or Melbourne this autumn.

At the end of the exciting 11-race series, the name added to the honour roll as the 51st Filly of the Year was the exceptional Legarto.

It was a brief campaign for the Ken and Bev Kelso-trained filly, whose involvement was limited to three races between Labour Weekend and Boxing Day. But she was a super-impressive winner of all three, racking up a total of 26 points that put her out of reach of any rival through the remainder of the series.

Legarto’s Filly of the Year series debut came in the Gr.3 Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) at Te Rapa on October 22, when she roared home from second last to score a stunning win by an ever-widening margin of three lengths.

That set her up for the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton in November, and produced more of the same.

After settling in third last, rider Ryan Elliot let her rip in the straight and she careered away to score by 4¾ lengths.

Next came the Gr.2 Eight Carat Classic (1600m) on Boxing Day, in which Legarto started as a $1.10 favourite. Wessex gave her an almighty scare by stealing a break of 10 lengths rounding the home turn, but Legarto reeled her in down the long Pukekohe straight and scored again.

But perhaps her finest moment came in early March, when Legarto became the first-ever New Zealand-trained winner of the prestigious Gr.1 A$1million Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.

Hopelessly blocked on more than one occasion in the straight, jockey Michael Dee eventually found a way through and Legarto exploded, coming from nowhere to score a dazzling win.

The second placegetter in the Filly of the Year series was Pennyweka, who finished on 17 points and would have been a headline act in her own right in any other year.