Carolina is reaping the reward
Trainer Graham Richardson thinks Carolina Reaper is his Group 1 replacement for ageing stable star Tiptronic.
But there could be some high-end crossover between the pair next season before the Easter Handicap winner at Pukekohe yesterday inherits the crown.
The exciting mare came from second last on the corner to roar past favourite Brando late to win the $120,000 handicap mile in the style of a good horse.
It was the second time this season jockey Ashvin Goindasamy has produced a pearler of a ride to win a major race for Richardson and training partner Rogan Norvall, having previously stolen the Zabeel Classic with a daring front-running ride on Tiptronic.
That and his earlier body of work confirm Tiptronic is still the star of the Matamata stable but as a nineyear-old he has only one season left and Richardson said yesterday he and Norvall had found their next weight-for-age performer.
“She is a high-class mare, we have always thought that,” Richardson said. “Last season we extended her out to the Oaks distance, like you sometimes have to with good fillies, but she was a bit immature for it.
“But she has come back this season a different mare and when you consider the horses she ran past, she is well up to Group 1 next season.”
That could even see Carolina Reaper set for the first two legs of the Hawke’s Bay triple crown in the spring and Tiptronic the stable rep for the third, with the likelihood their paths will cross after.
There was plenty to like about the future prospects of Pinarello (Championship Stakes) and Sharp ’N’ Smart in the Champagne Stakes, the two other black-type races.
Sharp ’N’ Smart was having only his second start when he surged past favourite Waitak late in the Champagne, suggesting he might have Derby scope next season.
Pinarello finished fifth in this year’s New Zealand Derby and looks a Cups winner the way he trounced some good staying three-year-olds in the Championship Stakes.
Carolina Reaper wasn’t the only Matamata-trained black-type winner for the day, with Prise De Fer claiming the equal-richest win of his career in the $100,000 Canterbury Gold Cup at Riccarton.