Racing: Top mares get a good look at each other

Prowess winning the Karaka Million 3-yo at Pukekohe in January. Photo / Supplied

Two of New Zealand’s most exciting mares got a rare glimpse of each other at Matamata yesterday but the next time Prowess and Skew Wiff cross paths could be Karaka Millions night.

The pair are Group 1 winners, the same age and took on many of the same rivals last season but have never met in a race.

Their track gallops between races at Matamata yesterday was one of the few times they have been at the same track at the same time, the last being at the Te Rapa trials on August 1.

And while those track gallops have them both set to race next on October 7, that will be on different sides of the Tasman as they are destined to not meet again until potentially the new $1 million Aotearoa Classic at Ellerslie on January 27, if they both turn up there.

Skew Wiff has her first public outing since winning the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings last start when she was given a maintenance gallop between races with raceday jockey Opie Bosson on yesterday.

She now heads straight to Cranbourne to trainer Mark Walker’s new Victorian stable and will contest the Rose of Kingston Stakes at Flemington on October 7.

Prowess hasn’t raced since winning the Group 1 Vinery Stakes in Sydney in March but showed she was over some recent niggles.

“She went 1200m in 1:14.5, her last 600m in just over 34 seconds and we were very happy with her,” said co-trainer Robert Wellwood. “That showed she is over her niggles and she is ready to go to Hawera for the Breeders Stakes on October 7.

All going well in her comeback race, Prowess will head to Melbourne for a 1600m race at The Valley which could lead into a 2000m start at the Melbourne Cup carnival.

But even if she does that she won’t be bumping into Skew Wiff again any time soon as the latter is likely to head to Sydney after the Rose of Kingston for the A$10m Golden Eagle on November 4, the same target as Legarto.

Although Prowess has put her spring campaign back on track, talented three-year-old stablemate Orchestral will miss her major black type aim.

The high-class filly raced well below her best at Hastings last start and has been given a short spell so Wellwood and senior training partner Roger James have withdrawn her from the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton, for which she was the one-time favourite.