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Exciting young prospect Nucleozor will be given his chance at attaining black-type in the coming months following his pleasing debut victory at Wingatui on Saturday.
Bred and raced by Te Akau Stud and Westonlea Bloodstock, the son of Almanzor had two previous trials, placing behind subsequent multiple Group performer Poetic Champion over 850m at Te Awamutu last November before winning his 800m heat at Riccarton last month.
Punters took note of his trial form, backing him into $3.40 favouritism in the Dakota Boutique + Lifestyle (820m) ahead of stablemate Discretion Rules at $3.50.
Nucleozor was caught three-wide with cover through the middle stages before improving five-wide at that turn and under the urgings of jockey Ashvin Goindasamy he showed a good turn of foot late and was able to reel in the Shankar Muniandy-trained Enterprise to win by half a length, with stablemate Discretion Rules a further three-quarters of a length back in third.
"It was a really good win because it's hard to sit wide, especially over that short distance, and then find the line like he did," said Mark Walker, who trains Nucleozor in partnership with Sam Bergerson.
"Hunter (Durrant, Riccarton stable foreman) is doing a fine job with the horses in the South Island. He's a gun track work rider and that's a big help with these young horses.
"He's (Nucleozor ) definitely up to black-type level and we'll give him that chance in his next few starts."
Durrant was pleased with Nucleozor's debut showing and is looking forward to watching him take on stakes company in the near future.
"He (Nucleozor) travelled down well and has a good constitution on him. He just wants to eat and work, he's so professional," Durrant said.
"We gave him a quiet trial at Riccarton, behind runners, and he did it nicely in winning, and he'd worked great since then.
"He's pretty laidback, they both are, and it was great to see Discretion Rules hit the line well too. Lily (Sutherland, jockey) felt Discretion Rules would improve for it, but he's very quiet as well and does everything right.
"They'll have some stakes race options coming up for them, and also Quintefeuille, who won on 10 February at Riccarton."
Bred and owned by Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis and Weston Lea Bloodstock's David Peacocke, the Te Akau Racing-trained dam, Nucleonic, impressed winning on debut over 1200m as a two-year-old, while granddam Mexican Rose was Champion two-year-old and three-year-old in Singapore, having first impressed when winning two of her three starts in New Zealand.
"Greg Tomlinson (Nearco Stud) and I bought Mexican Rose," Ellis said. "We sold two O'Reilly colts out of her for good money and her weanling topped the sale in 2016.
"She was pretty smart, Nucleonic, and this is her third foal, so it's great to get another promising horse like this early in her breeding career.
"The Peacocke family has had a lot of success with Te Akau, racing Avantage among others, and have a long family involvement in racing.
"We won the same race last year with our homebred Cu Chulainn and it was great to do it again with Nucleozor."
The family had another pleasing result on Saturday, with Nucleozor's full-sister Qali Al Farrasha gaining black-type when runner-up behind Positivity in the Gr.3 Sunline Vase (2100m) at Ellerslie.
