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Niagara filly Beyond The Fort won the final leg of the 2018-19 New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series at Riccarton on Saturday but it wasn’t enough to take the series away from the classy Pins filly Emily Jane.
Emily Jane finished a clear winner without having to contest Saturday’s Listed Warstep Stakes, having won the Canterbury Belle Stakes and NZB Insurance Stakes and placed in the NZB Airfreight Stakes for a total of 18 points.
Beyond The Fort, making her only appearance in the series, took equal second place on the table with the NZB Airfreight Stakes winner Secret Allure.Secret Allure didn’t add to her tally when she finished sixth in Saturday’s Warstep Stakes.
Beyond The Fort (Niagara x Stella Rossa by Testa Rossa) was having her first start since finishing a gallant second in last month’s G1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Trentham.Dropping back down in distance, Beyond The Fort sat back in the second half of the field before a flying finish down the extreme outside to win running away by two and a quarter lengths from Mohaka with Miss Valencia third.
Beyond The Fort is trained by Bill Thurlow, who was at Randwick on Saturday to saddle his Auckland Cup winner Glory Days in the Sydney Cup.Thurlow is planning an Australian trip for Beyond The Fort for either the G1 Australasian Oaks at Morphettville on May 4 or the Queensland carnival.
Beyond The Fort, raced by the estate of her late breeder R Stevens, boasts a very Australian pedigree despite the former Gai Waterhouse-trained Group 2 winner Niagara standing at The Oaks Stud in New Zealand.Niagara, a $620,000 Magic Millions yearling by Encosta De Lago, is the sire of 25 individual winners from just 68 starters
Beyond the Fort’s dam Stella Rossa is a half-sister to Singapore champion Prestissimo (Charge Forward) from a sister to G1 winner Bohemiath (Umatilla).Stella Rossa has produced four winners from five to race.