Promising three-year-old Suit Yourself (NZ) (Savile Row) honoured the memory of the late Kevin Hickman in perfect fashion when he scored a special victory at Te Rapa on Saturday.
The Pam Gerard-trained colt is a son of Savile Row, one of the many tremendous horses bred and raced by Hickman who passed away on Friday after a lengthy illness.
Hickman developed his Valachi Downs Stud into an internationally respected thoroughbred nursery, with Savile Row one of the many Group One performers bred and raced from the Matamata-based operation.
Suit Yourself is from the third crop of the multiple Group One placegetter, who currently stands at Mapperley Stud and had been well-favoured to score on debut at Rotorua last month but had to settle for the runner-up position on that occasion.
Punters were keen to follow up in the maiden 1200m event at Te Rapa and were rewarded for that support as rider Ryan Elliot produced a gem to launch an attack at the 300m that saw the combination shoot clear and then grimly hold on to a margin over the hard chasing Myakkabelle at the finish.
Gerard was full of enthusiasm for the horse who she and partner Tommy Hazlett purchased as a weanling for $3,000 on gavelhouse.com, when Valachi was dispersing horses due to the ill health of Hickman.
“That was the plan to try and get a win early in his career and he’s been a really nice colt right through,” Gerard said.
“He didn’t do everything right, but he’d had that race day experience and is learning all the time.
“We’re looking forward to getting him up over 1400m and a mile, and may look towards the Hawkes Bay Guineas (Gr. 2, 1400m) or, possibly, sending him south early to Riccarton.
“He does seem to handle give in the ground, but also has a pretty nice action so we expect he will quicken accordingly on better footing. He’s big, strong, and balanced, so he can get through it.
“He’s very much in the mould of his old man (Savile Row) and we’ve seen a lot of similarities in everything about him.
“He’s so much like Savile Row it’s not funny. Three or four months after we bought him, he had the same shiny coat and just looked amazing.
“We were lucky enough to buy him before the half-sister (Sedaka) won and then finished second in the Royal Stakes (Gr. 2, 2000m) and Sunline Vase (Gr. 3, 2100m).
“I see Suit Yourself as a real Derby type, but that’s a long way off at the moment.”
Elliot was also suitably impressed by the effort.
“He’s still got a few things to learn as he is still doing a few things wrong, but he is a nice horse going forward,” he said.
“He is a real colt and gets on the toe but has a bright future ahead of him.
“He jumped a bit slow, and we had to work around them but when he hit the front, he was still a bit green but once he sharpens that up, he will be a very nice horse.”
Suit Yourself is the ninth individual winner for his sire who was a stakes winner and three times Group One placed performer and the first son of Makfi to stand at stud in New Zealand. He will stand for a service fee of $2,500 + GST for the 2024 breeding season.
