Horse racing: Perfumist continues NZB Kiwi naming hoodoo

Perfumist lost at Randwick the same day she was named in the NZB Kiwi.

Sydney filly Perfumist is still a certain starter in the $3.5 million NZB Kiwi, even after continuing an unenviable record for slot race contenders at Randwick on Saturday.

The Bjorn Baker-trained filly was named in the slot owned by Race on Saturday morning and promptly went out and did what every other horse who has been named in the slot race did: got beat at her next start.

In an incredible coincidence, all seven horses that have raced after being named in an NZB Kiwi slot have lost their next start. Two horses, Checkmate and Sethito, have not raced since securing their slots.

The hoodoo is not a reflection on the race, more circumstances, with Damask Rose beaten the day she was named in the NZB Kiwi but then winning the $1.5m Karaka Millions at her next start.

Ardalio was beaten at Matamata on Saturday in her next race after being named for the Kiwi, but trainer Stephen Marsh stated publicly before the Lisa Chittick Champagne Stakes the filly was using the race to bring her on for the slot race.

Dealt With was beaten but lost no admirers when he ran third in the Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old days after getting a slot, while Evaporate was in need of the run and luckless when third on February 8 in his first start since securing the Entain slot in the Kiwi.

Perfumist may not have endeared herself to punters who backed her into $1.75 in the last race at Randwick, but Baker says her second placing was massive.

“The horse inside her went too hard to hold her out and she was left a sitting duck late for the winner, who is a very good horse,” said Baker.

“I wasn’t disappointed at all. She hadn’t raced for four weeks, so I think it will really bring her on.

“She is definitely still going to Ellerslie, and I’ll give her a couple of good gallops and maybe even an exhibition gallop on the Saturday before she flies over on the Sunday [ahead of] the race.”

Perfumist is owned by syndication giants OTI Racing, who buy a lot of horses out of New Zealand, and is still rated the $5 equal favourite for the NZB Kiwi with Victorian galloper Evaporate, with Checkmate and Damask Rose on the next line at $6.

Nine of the 14 slots have now been filled for the NZB Kiwi, with the Barneswood Farms-Daniel Nakhle-Darren Brady slot horse to be announced at 8pm tonight live on Trackside.

Auckland Thoroughbred Racing will announce their slot horse on track at Ellerslie after the first race on Saturday, with three slots still to be filled after that.

A pair of slippers?

One of the few great Australian races to still elude New Zealand-trained horses remains at least a possibility for Return To Conquer.

The colt remained unbeaten after winning at Matamata on Saturday, heading home a Te Ākau-trained trifecta of Snitzel colts in the Fairview Slipper.

He is still in the entries of a much bigger Slipper, the A$5m Golden Slipper at Rosehill on March 22, but co-trainer Mark Walker isn’t thinking that far ahead.

“He will go to the Sistema at Ellerslie on March 8 next, and we can’t really start planning anything until after that,” says Walker.

“He would obviously have to win the Sistema [Group 1] to warrant going to the Slipper, and we’d check his ratings against the better Australian 2-year-olds to see how he stacks up.

“But we think he’s a very good colt, so he remains in the Slipper entries for now.”

Return To Conquer will clash with Karaka Millions-winning stablemate La Dorada in the Sistema on Champions Day.

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.