A number of Te Akau Racing fillies could put their hand up for a shot at upcoming stakes assignments at Riccarton Park on Wednesday.
Hunter Durrant, who handles the South Island arm of Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson’s stable, has 14 runners engaged in the midweek meeting, including Group Three performer Ocean Miss (NZ) (Ocean Park) in the GM Accounting and Consulting Rating 65 (1200m).
The daughter of Ocean Park placed behind Tuxedo in the Gr.3 Wellington Stakes (1600m), subsequently finished eighth in the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m) and had a short freshen-up ahead of a potential tilt at the upcoming southern Guineas races.
“She’s come up well, she had a freshen since her last run and this will be a run to evaluate where we go with her next,” Durrant said.
The same applies to promising filly Donna Chiara (NZ) (Belardo), who joins her stablemate in the Rating 65 contest after nearly four months away from the races.
“She’s coming up well, she had a nice trial at Ashburton and she’s a filly we rate, a nice one to have for Lib Petagna,” Durrant said. “She won very impressively back at Timaru and we just hope she can go along the path of repeating that this prep.
“We rate her highly enough to be going towards those (Guineas) races, so if she comes up, that’s what we’ll aim for.”
Another three-year-old filly in Corps D’Elite (So You Think) has come close to collecting her maiden in two starts to date, and Durrant anticipates a step-up in distance in the Alistair Gray Memorial Maiden (1400m) will be right up her alley.
“She’s stepping up to 1400 and that will suit, she’ll appreciate that being by So You Think,” he said. “She’s a pretty classy filly who has done everything right so far.”
Purple Prose (NZ) (Embellish) indicated he is also a winner in waiting last-start at the course, with a luckless run behind Airpark Hustler making him the big danger in the Fiona Stuart Memorial Maiden (1600m).
“He was very unlucky last start at Riccarton, if he’d seen clear air earlier I think he would’ve been right in it,” Durrant said. “Stepping up to a mile, I think he’ll be pretty hard to beat.”
Of their older contingent, the in-form Fellini (NZ) (Belardo) will kick off his new campaign in the Rangiora Equine Services Open Handicap (1600m) which wasn’t the gelding’s original plan.
“We didn’t plan to run him on Wednesday, but when we saw how light the noms were for this race, we thought we’d put him in,” he said. “He’s fit and ready to go after a few nice trials.”
The five-year-old had placed in a Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) in his juvenile term but has found a purple patch of form this season, winning two of his last four and finishing fourth in the Listed Sothy’s Spring Classic (2000m).
“He’s racing in career-best form and there isn’t any exact reason, he’s just possibly a late maturer,” Durrant said.
Insatiable (NZ) (All Too Hard) also had a near-faultless spring campaign with a pair of placings down the Riccarton chute over Cup Week, and after breaking her bridesmaid streak at Timaru, Durrant expects he’ll be right in the finish in the C.S Stevens Memorial Banks Peninsula Cup (1100m).
“He’s had a nice freshen-up, and if he brings his A game, he should be very hard to beat,” he said.
