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Savabeel two-year-old Aotea Lad enhanced his prospect for New Zealand’s biggest juvenile prize when he won Saturday’s G2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes at Trentham.
Aotea Lad (Savabeel x Corsage by Volksraad) was making his debut for Te Akau Racing and is now high among the contenders for the Karaka Million at Ellerslie in January.
The David Ellis-headed Te Akau operation has won the last two editions of New Zealand’s richest race for 2YOs with Avantage (Fastnet Rock) and Melody Belle (Commands).Aotea Lad was purchased by Ellis from the Phoenix Park’s draft at Karaka last January for NZ$200,000, perhaps influenced by wife Karyn being part of the syndicate that bred the horse.
He made his debut after being gelded after trainer Jamie Richards found him difficult to manage. The Jamie Richards-trained gelding won a recent trial with his debut win not unexpected as he started a short priced favourite.“Early in the spring he was very colty so he was gelded and that was the making of him as a racehorse,” said Paul Richards, a senior member of the Te Akau team.
Aotea Lad’s dam Corsage was a stakes winner and G1 placed in the Diamond Stakes as a 2YO. She is a half-sister to the G2-placed Miss Thorn (Thorn Park) and a grand-daughter of the G1 winner Seamist (Beaufort Sea).Seamist is the dam of seven winners including G2 winner Torlesse (Volksraad).
A half-sister to Aotea Lad by Makfi is catalogued for Book 1 of Karaka 2019 in January.Aotea Lad is the 82nd stakes winner by Savabeel.
Saturday’s G3 Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie produced a trifecta by Karaka graduates, headed by the Spirit Of Boom colt Spirits Aubeer.The 3YO gelding is the seventh stakes winner and first at Group level for his Queensland-based sire.
Spirits Aubeer (Spirit Of Boom x Friendly Glow) was bought for $55,000 at the 2017 Karaka Select Sale and has now won three of his six starts and $66375 prizemoney.The $160,000 Premier Sale graduate Surely Sacred (Rock ‘N’ Pop) was a fast-finishing second with $50,000 Select Sale graduate Hypnos (Reliable Man) third.
Spirits Aubeer was bred by Queensland’s Eureka Cambooya Thoroughbreds and was offered at Karaka by Bradbury Park where he was purchased by trainer Nigel Tiley.The connections of Dundeel 3YO Lincoln Falls have G1 aspirations for the colt after he recorded his second win in three starts at Trentham.
“We hope to be going to the Derby with him, that’s our target and he’s by Dundeel so he should stay,” said part-owner John Street, of Lincoln Farms.Trained by Lisa Latta, Lincoln Falls was a debut winner in the spring before he finished runner-up during the Hawke’s Bay carnival.
Lincoln Falls was bought as a 2YO at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale for $NZ200,000.His dam is the two-time Listed winner Causeway Queen (Giant’s Causeway), a half-sister to the dual G3 winner Solar Charged (Charge Forward).