Levin mare Faraglioni pictured winning at Trentham in November last year. Photo: Race Images NZ
Levin mare Faraglioni pictured winning at Trentham in November last year. Photo: Race Images NZ
A Levin racehorse the subject of a colossal bet placed by a high-profile punting syndicate quietly boarded a horse float headed for Ellerslie this morning.
Faraglioni, who lines up in the $500,000 Westbury Stud Classic (Group 2) tomorrow, had a bet of $100,000 placed at the New Zealand TAB lastweek at a fixed odds price of $14 to win the race.
Should the mare win, the return to the Boys Get Paid syndicate will be a cool $1.4 million - and set a record as the biggest single payout in NZ TAB history.
The bet was enough for TAB to slash the mare’s pre-race odds to $6, which now puts her on the second line of betting behind $3.20 race favourite La Crique.
Faraglioni, who is prepared by up-and-coming trainer Josh Shaw, was given a couple of weeks in the paddock to freshen up after her last race, a Group 1 placing in the $400,000 TAB Classic at Trentham in early December.
Since then Faraglioni had won a 1000m trial impressively at Foxton on January 16, with the big Boys Get Paid bet placed soon after the trial.
Shaw wasn’t phased by the attention the bet had created and was focusing on putting the finishing polish on his stable star, which included a track gallop at Levin Equine Training Facility on Wednesday.
Galloping in company on the course proper at Levin, the mare ran casually over 1200m but was allowed to lengthen her stride over the final 600m by raceday rider Lisa Allpress to stop clocks at a tick over 35 seconds.
Top jockey Lisa Allpress will ride Faraglioni at Ellerslie. Photo / Trish Dunell
“To be honest I was probably a little surprised by the magnitude of the bet, but in saying that they’ve probably found good value and I wish them well,” he said.
Shaw said Faraglioni comes into the race with fresh legs.
“She’s well. She hasn’t missed a beat since her little break so I do expect her to run well,” he said.
Faraglioni had been a revelation this season, taking the step up to town hall company with aplomb with second-placings in the Group 2 Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1400m) and Group 1 TAB Classic (1600m) in her last two outings.
Shaw wasn’t concerned about Faraglioni stepping out on the new purpose-built racing surface at Ellerslie for the first time. It looked to play fair across the board and he couldn’t see any reason why his charge would fair any different.
Levin mare Faraglioni after winning at the Levin Racing Club meeting last season.
“All horses seem to handle it. She might have had the moniker of a wet tracker, but she has performed equally well on top of the ground,” he said.
BGP began in 2011 and with canny promotion grew from a small group to a high-profile syndicate boasting thousands of members who would be on course at Ellerslie contributing to an estimated betting pool starting at more than $1 million.
Popular racing group Boys Get Paid will be out in force at Ellerslie tomorrow.
TAB bookmaker Thad Taylor said another large pre-post bet taken by the BGP syndicate was a $50,000 wager on juvenile Cool ‘N’ Fast at an early quote of 20/1.
But the Faraglioni bet presented the biggest liability for the TAB, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ellerslie meeting was the richest on the New Zealand Racing Calendar with a total of $4.5 million in stakemoney spread across six races, acting as a prelude to the annual Karaka Yearling Sales which begin the following day.
Faraglioni lines up in Race 4 which is set to go at 5.29pm, followed by the $1,000,000 TAB Karaka Millions 2-year-old race, the $1 million Elsdon park Aoteraroa Classic, and the $1.5 million TAB Karaka Millions 3-year-old race.
