Racing: Carolina Reaper claims promising win in $120,000 Easter Handicap

Carolina Reaper won the Easter Handicap yesterday. Photo / Trish Dunell

Trainer Graham Richardson thinks Carolina Reaper is his Group 1 replacement for aging stable star Tiptronic.

But there could be some high-end crossover between the pair next season before Saturday's Easter Handicap winner at Pukekohe inherits the crown.

The exciting mare came from second last on the corner to roar past favourite Brando late to win the $120,000 handicap mile in the style of a good horse.

It was the second time this season jockey Ashvin Goindasamy has produced a pearler of a ride to win a major race for Richardson and training partner Rogan Norvall, having previously stolen the Zabeel Classic with a daring front-running ride on Tiptronic.

That and his earlier body of work confirm Tiptronic is still the star of the Matamata stable but as a nine-year-old he only has one more season left and Richardson says he and Norvall had found their next weight-for-age performer.

"She is a high-class mare, we have always thought that," said Richardson.

"Last season we extended her out to the Oaks distance, like you sometimes have to with good fillies, but she was a bit immature for it.

"But she has come back this season a different mare and when you consider the horses she ran past, she is well up to Group 1 next season."

That could even see Carolina Reaper set for the first two legs of the Hawke's Bay triple crown in the spring and Tiptronic the stable rep for the third, with the likelihood their paths will cross after.

The Easter win caps a huge season for the top end of the relatively small Richardson/Norvall stable, with Bonny Lass still to come in the Cambridge Breeders Stakes at Te Rapa on Saturday.

"We are proud of what we have been able to achieve with only 25-26 horses in work usually and Rogan is a huge part of that," says Richardson.

Carolina Reaper was the performance of the day but there was plenty to like about the future prospects of Pinarello (Championship Stakes) and Sharp 'N' Smart in the Champagne Stakes, the two other black-type races on the day Pukekohe became the home of Auckland Thoroughbred Racing for the next 18 months.

Sharp 'N' Smart was having only his second start when he surged past favourite Waitak late in the Champagne, suggesting he might have Derby scope next season.

Pinarello finished fifth in this year's New Zealand Derby and looks a Cups winner or even weight-for-age horse next season the way he trounced some good staying three-year-olds in the Championship Stakes.

His victory was compensation for his owners who lost a dead-heat victory in the open sprint with Letzbeglam.

The hot favourite deadheated with Iconic Star but there was a two-way inquiry with the adjudicating panel ruling the slightest of brushing between the pair, which went both ways, had inconvenienced Iconic Star more than Letzbeglam and cost her the win.

Carolina Reaper wasn't the only Matamata-trained black-type winner for the day, with Prise De Fer claiming the equal-richest win of his career in the $100,000 Canterbury Gold Cup at Riccarton, continuing the successful return to the domestic training ranks by Mark Walker.