RACING: Fleet-footed fillies show class at Waipukurau

There's a saying that applies in many sports _ form is temporary, class is permanent _ and this season has been proof that it fits racing as well as any other sport.
In March of 2007, Boundless and Referred fought out the finish of one of New Zealand's most prestigious races, the group 1 New Zealand Oaks. Both fillies produced a tremendous performance that day, and it would have been reasonable to expect great things from them in the future.
But for both of them, things went wrong, and thoughts of retirement to the breeding paddock understandably emerged. But the connections of both horses stuck to the belief that their true ability would once again be shown on the racetrack, and in the last month, they've been proven right. Boundless has in her last three starts won a group 3 at Ellerslie and the group 2 Counties Cup and finished a close and brave second in the group 2 Avondale Cup.
While Referred has not yet returned to that level, her win in the $20,000 Leopard Hotel Waipukurau Cup was a reward for her connections' persistence and a very promising sign.
The comfortable win against arguably the strongest field assembled in the Waipukurau Cup in recent years was one of jockey Kelly Myers's three wins on the day. It was also Referred's fourth from 25 starts, with a further 12 top-five finishes, and took her earnings close to $120,000. The Bill Thurlow-trained runner is now being set for the Wellington Cup at Trentham in January, the same venue as that Oaks of two years ago, for a possible rematch with Boundless.
The day's other highlight came in the fourth race, the AON Insurance Brokers 3yo, boosted the claim that this could be one of the best groups of 3-year-old fillies assembled in New Zealand in a long time. Early last month, Katie Lee pulled off one of the more impressive feats in our country's racing history in winning the 2000 Guineas and 1000 Guineas in Christchurch. Less than a week later, two very talented fillies, Eileen Dubh and St Germaine, left the males in their wake and fought out the finish of the group 1 Levin Classic at Otaki. Yesterday, first-starter Dorotea Dior, a $450,000 purchase, won the 1200m event very impressively.
It remains to be seen if she can measure up to the likes of the fillies mentioned earlier, but regardless of the strength of her opposition yesterday, the manner of Dorotea Dior's emphatic win _ by just under seven lengths _ gave her connections plenty of reasons to be confident in taking on any opposition.
The descriptions of these wonderful performances indicate that it was an exceptional day of racing at Waipukurau, and it was, but there were some negative points.
Jockeys Michael Walker (pictured) and Buddy Lammas were both involved in falls and stood down from the remainder of their riding engagements, but luckily both avoided serious injury.
Sadly, the same can't be said of the horse Walker parted company with in the first race, Royal Engagement, who had to be put down. It is the saddest sight in racing and inevitably casts a shadow over the remainder of the day's action, no matter how good.
But the performances of Referred and Dorotea Dior were an advertisement for the good things in racing and gave us reasons to be excited about the next few weeks and months.