Aussie colt Public Attention joins field for NZ’s richest race at Ellerslie

Public Attention has secured last spot in a $3.5m NZB Kiwi slot race. Photo / Supplied

The last piece of the NZB Kiwi puzzle was worth waiting for.

It came on Wednesday morning when it was confirmed the overnight rumours were true and high-class Australian 3-year-old colt Public Attention was taking the last spot in the $3.5 million slot race at Ellerslie on Saturday week.

After considering horses he and his business partners owned themselves prolific Australian owner Ozzie Kheir pulled off a late deal with the connections of the grey colt for him to race in their slot.

Kheir’s slot was the last to be filled, finalising the field of 14 for our richest ever race which will be the highlight of a mammoth Champions Day.

Rumours of the late-night deal swept through racing on Tuesday night and Public Attention was quickly into $4 second favouritism in the New Zealand TAB’s futures market.

But with paperwork still to be signed it was left to co-trainer Mick Price to break the news that a serious horse was returning home to the country he was born in to add some top-end class to the NZB Kiwi.

“He is a good colt and already proven in a good stakes race (Eskimo Prince Stakes, G3] over here,” Price told the Herald.

“He is owned by Coolmore and their partners who bought him out of the Carlaw Park draft for $160,000 at Karaka.”

Public Attention is by wonderful stallion Written Tycoon out of Legramor, a daughter of Katie Lee, the champion New Zealand three-year-old of 2009.

In lovely touches for the first running of the new race, Public Attention was bred by industry legend the late Sir Patrick Hogan while Public Attention’s ownership group includes Sir Peter Vela, owner of New Zealand Bloodstock, the sponsor of the Kiwi.

Because it is a slot race the NZB Kiwi doesn’t carry Group 1 status and that raised concerns it wouldn’t be able to attract the best colts, who would instead chase Group 1 wins in Australia to increase their future stud worth.

While that has proven to be the case with New Zealand’s best colt Savaglee, whose connections chose to target Saturday’s A$1m Australian Guineas rather than the NZB Kiwi, Price says that wasn’t an issue for Public Attention’s owners.

“I was talking to Tom Magnier from Coolmore about it and with the colt having a really strong New Zealand family of the late Sir Patrick Hogan’s behind him there has already been interest from some New Zealand studs in him.

“So they think if he can go across there and win a really big race like this it can only help his credentials over there.

“We are excited to be part of it. He is a colt who can run handy to the speed and is obviously proven right-handed.

“So this race ticks a lot of boxes for him.”

Public Attention will be ridden by Wiremu Pinn, who rode winners for the Price/Michael Kent junior stable when based in Victoria last year.

“He is a jockey we like and I think he will only get better and more consistent as he gets older so we are happy to have him on.”

There is no waiting around on the NZB Kiwi campaign trail for Public Attention, who was fourth to a genuine star in Broadsiding in the Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill last Saturday but will arrive in Auckland on Thursday night.

“He will head across and stay at Lance Noble’s stables, which I have had a tour of and is very nice, and he will head to Ellerslie for a gallop next Wednesday morning.”

Not only is Public Attention good enough to win the race but like fellow Australian-trained reps Evaporate and Perfumist he is a natural go-forward horse.

Which makes the barrier draw to be held at 7pm next Tuesday even more crucial.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.