Photo: Bruno Cannatelli
A tenacious victory in Saturday’s A$200,000 Gr.3 Catanach’s Jewellers MRC Foundation Cup (2000m) at Caulfield has earned Kiwi mare Positivity (Almanzor) a golden ticket into next month’s Gr.1 Caulfield Cup (2400m).
The MRC Foundation Cup offers a ballot-free Caulfield Cup entry for its winner every year, and the top-quality mare Jameka scored memorable wins in both races as a spring four-year-old in 2016.
Positivity is also a four-year-old on an upward trajectory. The daughter of Cambridge Stud stallion Almanzor won the Gr.3 Sunline Vase (2100m) at Ellerslie and Gr.3 SA Fillies’ Classic (2500m) at Morphettville during her three-year-old season, and she was runner-up in the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham.
The Andrew Forsman-trained mare resumed with an eye-catching second in the Listed Heatherlie Handicap (1700m) at Caulfield on August 31, and the step up to 2000m on Saturday played right into her hands.
Positivity enjoyed a handy run in fourth for jockey Harry Coffey, then tracked up nicely behind front-runners Just Fine and Future History coming up to the home turn.
Future History kicked hard at the top of the straight and looked like the winner, but Coffey brought Positivity up alongside him and she slowly but steadily ate into his margin.
Gear Up and Saint George joined in down the outside in a four-horse scramble to the line, but it was Positivity who found the most out of all of that quartet in the last few strides. She dug deep and held them all out, claiming victory by a short head.
“That’s a pretty incredible feeling,” Forsman’s Flemington stable representative Chloe Cumming said. “She's been super in her work coming into this and she looks amazing, and so to see her get it on the line is pretty incredible.
“She’s come a long way since she came over in the autumn. She’s acclimatised and she’s been thriving since she’s been over here. She’s been loving it.
“We’ll have to see how she pulls up from this win, talk to Andrew and see what he wants to do with it (Caulfield Cup ballot exemption).”
Positivity has now had 10 starts for four wins, two placings and A$452,095 in stakes for her owner, major New Zealand industry supporter Ben Kwok.
“It’s awesome for this horse to run some consistent races and get rewarded today,” Coffey said. “She’s a real scopey, lengthy type. I don't reckon she actually knows what’s going on fully yet, still a lot of raw ability there, but it’s good for her to win this race today.
“Obviously not only is this race special because of what’s attached to it with all the charities involved, but it’s a race that springboards a lot into the majors in the spring, so any horse that wins it, you know they’re going the right way.
“All you can do is win. That’s two really consistent runs in a row, so I suppose she’s going to get into the Caulfield Cup with no weight. I might have to get on the brown rice diet to ride her. But all you can do is win, and that’s what she’s doing, so she’s going the right way.”
Kwok purchased Positivity for $160,000 out of the Woburn Farm draft during the Book 1 Yearling Sale at Karaka. She was bred by the late Sir Patrick Hogan in partnership with Lady Justine Hogan and Peter Walker.
Positivity is out of Walker’s Group One placegetter Pussy O’Reilly and from an extended family that includes stakes winners Pussy Willow, Dopff and Valpolicella.
