Size doesn’t matter
Kenny Rae is a spade is a spade sort of bloke. He could easily spin a yarn about how he picked out star filly Prom Queen by his astute judgement and ability to spot brilliance in a young horse but Rae gets more of a kick out of telling the real story.
Rae admits he would probably not have agreed to take Prom Queen on lease from Windsor Park Stud if he saw how small she was.
‘‘I took her sight unseen and I’m glad I did because if I had of have seen her I reckon I would have said no thanks,’’ he quipped.
Prom Queen has won five of her six starts this season with two of those wins coming at Listed level and her only defeat when she was severely underdone in a fresh up effort.
‘‘She looked like nothing when she arrived at our place,’’ Rae said. He even joked that he had to give her a try because he had paid $250 to have her delivered to his and wife Lisa’s Ruakaka property. Her latest win came on Saturday, a five and a half-length domination of the Listed Champagne Stakes field at Riccarton. It was the last act of her two-year-old season and the final straw for Rae to finally admit they have something special on their hands.
‘‘People have been saying she’s a superstar but I don’t like to think like that. I’m usually the pessimistic one but she’s proven how good she is to me now,’’ he said.
Rae believes the Prom Queen story is proof some things are just meant to be. Because of her pedigree, Rae believes if the pocket rocket, barely bigger than 14 hands, had been more of an impressive specimen, she would have gone through the sales and not entered his family’s stable.
Prom Queen has already earned more than $95,000 and will step up to Group I company in the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton in November.
Plenty of people have questioned whether Prom Queen will step up to the mile but Rae’s gut feeling is that she will and said it would be crazy not to give her the opportunity.
He said Prom Queen has been taking a long time to pull up after the winning post, a promising sign she will get over more ground.