Travis Stakes: Apostrophe may have earned herself a career extension with victory at Te Rapa Racecourse

Apostrophe's trainers say the in-form mare is racing so well they're looking at options in Australia before she goes to stud in the spring.

Apostrophe may have earned herself a career extension and trip to Australia with her Travis Stakes victory at Te Rapa.

The in-form mare won the Group 2 on Saturday in nailbiting fashion, grabbing Saint Alice on the line in what was originally touted as her last start.

But trainer Roger James and Robert Wellwood are now considering her options at the Queensland which could boost her future broodmare sale value.

“She is definitely going to stud in the spring but while she is racing so well we are looking into options for her owners in Australia in case they want to go down that path,” says Wellwood.

“There is a 2000m fillies and mares race at the carnival over there that will really suit her. She she might even end up going for a couple of starts.”

Any Australian black type is enormously valuable for New Zealand racemares and Apostrophe is a good option for Queensland as she can handle wet tracks and the Australian mares’ ranks are softest at 2000m-plus.

“If she goes she will have to go to Sydney and travel by road to Queensland but she is an older mare now and will handle that, no issues,” says Wellwood.

If Apostrophe heads to Queensland she will be looking to embellish a wonderful recent record in Australia for the James/Wellwood stable.

They have won the Vinery Stakes at Group 1 level the past two years with Prowess and Orchestral, the $500,000 Roy Higgins with Mark Twain, guaranteeing him a Melbourne Cup start, and Prowess also won the Group 1 McCafe Crystal Mile in October.

But for all their Australian heroics over the past 13 months, it is their strike rate at home that makes the most impressive reading.

The stable has trained 29 winners in New Zealand this season from just 197 starters, earning $2,923,867 in stakes.

Incredibly, that means the horses they have lined up in New Zealand this season have earned an average of $14,841 per start.

“We didn’t know that but when you hear that number it is a great return for our owners and something we are both very proud of,” says Wellwood.

The stable has trained eight black-type winners in New Zealand this season, as well as three more in Australia, for a total haul for their owners of more than $4 million in stakes.

Their domestic earnings per starter is the highest of any stable in the top 20 on the trainer’s premiership, with only the 24th-placed Peter and Dawn Williams having a higher average earn, with their 83 starters for the season earning an average of $16,977 per start.