Photo: Kirsten Ledington
New Zealand-based syndicator Go Racing have gone back to the proven well at Karaka to source what they hope to be their next champion juvenile.
They went to $190,000 to secure last season’s New Zealand Champion Two-Year-Old Velocious out of Inglewood Stud’s 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft, and the daughter of Written Tycoon took her syndicate on the ride of a lifetime.
She carried the Go Racing silks to victories in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) and Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) before her breakthrough elite-level victory in Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m).
In the midst of Velocious’ rise, Go Racing went to $300,000 at last year’s Karaka sales to purchase her Dundeel half-sister Alacritous and repeated the dose at Karaka on Sunday when going to $375,000 to secure her Per Incanto half-sister (lot 188).
“We are absolutely rapt that we have bought her,” Go Racing General Manager Matt Allnutt said. “We were prepared to go a wee bit further. She is a queen of a filly and we are rapt to carry on our association with the family and Inglewood Stud.”
While Allnutt said the Per Incanto filly has many similarities to her successful sister, he believes their recent purchase is a better type.
“Velocious was a big, scopey filly in the same mould as this filly,” he said. “I think this is actually a nicer type. Being by Written Tycoon, Velocious is a wee bit long and that potentially put a few people off.
“I just think this is an absolutely cracking filly and we will hopefully have a bit of fun with her in the future.”
Like Velocious and Alacritous, the Per Incanto filly is set to be trained by Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh.
“She will almost certainly be trained by Stephen,” Allnutt said. “He does a great job with our horses. We have had a long association with him, and we are happy to continue that relationship.”
Meanwhile, Alacritous has shown a lot of promise to date for Marsh, according to Allnutt, and is set to make her debut in the coming months.
“She had a trial just before Christmas,” Allnutt said. “We thought about pushing on and having a crack at getting into the Karaka Millions because she is precocious, but we really wanted to give her a second trial and there weren’t any trials for her for a month, so we decided to give her a bit if time out.
“She is pre-training now and will come back into the stable soon. She will race as a two-year-old.”
As reported earlier in the week, Velocious is making a pleasing return for Marsh after undergoing a wind operation last year following two sub-par performances early in her three-year-old term.
“She had a jumpout last week and will have a quiet trial next week,” Allnutt said. “She will have two trials and then will be back and ready to race, all going well.
“Her breathing was really good in the jumpout last week and she certainly hasn’t lost any of her speed. We were more than happy with what she did and are really looking forward to the future with her.”
