Sam Spratt had time to pose for the photographer as O'Marilyn won the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes. Photo / Thinkstock
Boy, have we got plenty of thoroughbred talent to look forward to next season.
We saw a few of them at Awapuni on Saturday.
O'Marilyn, Kawi and Lady Cumquat look set to be regular headline snatchers in their next preparations. And not just small headlines.
O'Marilyn's victory in the $225,000 The Oaks Stud's Manawatu Sires was more remarkable than it might have seemed to some. It was stunning.
On form it was no surprise that O'Marilyn started favourite, but in taking the shortest odds in the race you had to accept that for at least some of the early part of the race the classy filly would get posted three wide from her outside barrier as she had been when chasing Vespa home in the Karaka Million and Diamond Stakes.
Well, not only was she three deep the entire 1400m trip, she was clearly off the bit and being scrubbed by rider Sam Spratt at the 550m.
At that point trainer Stephen McKee gave up on her. "I thought, well, she's had it, I'll look back and see where the two colts [Prince Mambo and Passing Shot] are in running."
Remarkably, O'Marilyn kept on pressing forward but even when she levelled with the leaders at the 400m her greatest fan couldn't imagine she could keep going.
Not only did she do that, O'Marilyn put a break on the rest of the field. The most astonishing feature was that Spratt returned to tell McKee the filly had actually won very easily.
"We'd been toying with the idea of putting side winkers on to help her concentrate a touch more and you saw how she was playing her ears back and forward in the closing stages," said McKee.
Being by O'Reilly from the highly-bred Zabeel mare Monroe Magic, O'Marilyn should theoretically be even better at three.
She is typical of the classy horse her part owner Trevor McKee has plucked from the Karaka sale ring, in this case for $120,000, a small fraction of what O'Marilyn is now worth.
Like O'Marilyn, Kawi has gone to the spelling paddock, thoughts of a possible Queensland winter campaign having been scrapped.
"He'll be a serious horse when I bring him back," said trainer Allan Sharrock.
Kawi brought joy to his syndicate of owners, and nothing but despair to the punter who plonked $40,000 on Angelica Hall, the filly he got up and beat in the final 75m.
Angelica Hall gave the impression she may not have appreciated being in front and she was there to be claimed when Jonathan Riddell came along with the best ride in the race to claim victory.
Make no mistake, Angelica Hall also goes on that list of headliners for next season.
There was a sense of a horse peaking at the right time about Lady Cumquat's $70,000 Higgins Manawatu Classic victory.
The impressive part was when Rory Hutchings said "go" and the filly exploded. Horses with explosive bursts of speed are rarely anything but top class. Rory Hutchings is these days one of our best riding talents and it's a little surprising that this was just his second stakes winner.
Pussy O'Reilly might not have quite the class of those mentioned above here, but there is not too much she lacks and there was plenty to admire about her home-straight sprint to win at Awapuni.
And, if there was a prize for trying hard, Soriano won it with her late charge under 59-year-old Noel Harris to win the $100,000 Ezibuy Awapuni Gold Cup.
Soriano holds a nomination for the rich Singapore International Cup in May.
Add to those mentioned Puccini, Rising Romance, El Roca, Vespa, Bounding and Silent Achiever, with any number of others and season 2014-15 will be a beaut.
The racing industry in Waikato looks to centralise operations.