That will make Legarto an imposing sight this summer as she had already developed huge hind quarters and Kelso says the rising five-year-old is being aimed at a full season as her owners will resist any temptation to put her in foal before racing over the summer.
“Her owners love racing their horses and because she has achieved so much it is easy to forget she still is still only four,” says Kelso.
Not only was Legarto one of the star three-year-old fillies of her year here, but she also won the Australian Guineas against the boys at Flemington.
She went on with that form this season, winning the Herbie Dyke and securing the first $500,000 Entain Summer Bonus, meaning she has earned just shy of $2.5m.
But it was one of her biggest defeats that gives Kelso confidence for what might lay ahead next season.
“She finished sixth in the Australian Cup and to some people that may have been disappointing, but you take a look at that race and I think she was the youngest horse there by two years.
“She was only a length from Mr Brightside, and Cascadian won the race from mares Pride Of Jenni and Atishu who are older, established weight-for-age horses.
“When you see that it is a good reminder that these good horses can keep getting better with age.
“What she did as a four-year-old is hard to do. You go straight from age-group racing to weight-for-age without any real weight relief so when you take that into account you realise she did pretty well and could be even better this campaign.”
Much of her next campaign will be in New Zealand again, as stake increases here make staying home a viable option against more challenging Australian campaigns.
Legarto will likely trial in the first week of August and Kelso would like to kick off her new season in the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings on September 7 with the option to go to the Arrowfield up to 1600m three weeks later.
“That will all be weather dependent, as it will be for a lot of good horses,” confirms Kelso.
While a race like the Golden Eagle, worth A$10m, lured Legarto to Sydney last spring and heading forward features like the Australian Cup will always be options, Kelso admits some of the stakes levels set for this summer in New Zealand are pleasantly surprising.
“I know it has been the case that our best horses needed to go to Australia, but the weight-for-age races here really are worth great money now,” he says.
“The big A$3m to A$5m type races in Australia will always be attractive but the good horses can race for great money here this summer so those big money Australian races may be targets at the end of campaigns here.”
It isn’t just Legarto that the Kelsos have black-type aspirations for next season with stunning debut winner Alabama Lass to go down a NZ 1000 Guineas path.
“She is a filly we have a lot of time for and often these fast fillies can get 1600m as three-year-olds even if that isn’t their best distance later in their careers.
“So she will target the Gold Trail to Hastings [also 7 September], and then if she is racing well we will look at a 1000 Guineas campaign.”
Kelso also suggests punters put imported mare Jolted in their black book as a potential Cups horse next season.
“She won what has turned out to be a really good form race for us and she will be stronger and more mature next season.
“We think she can develop into a really nice mare and she has been sent to us to get some black type and we think she can.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
