Racing: Injuries lead to retirement of Lauraella

Lauraella will be a great addition to New Zealand's broodmare band. Photo / Greg Bowker

The decade-long curse of the Northern Oaks has claimed another victim with the retirement of Lauraella.

Last season's champion 3-year-old filly has become one of New Zealand's most commercial broodmares after her retirement this week because of injury.

While South Auckland trainer Geoff Small believes the multiple group one winner could have come back from leg problems to race next season but he says the glamour mare has nothing left to prove.

"She is already a great racehorse and she is worth so much as a broodmare you have to weigh up the risks and time used up putting her back in training, versus what she is worth at stud," said Small.

"If you look at it that way it is an easy decision, even though I would have loved to have had her back."

Lauraella retires as the winner of 10 of 25 starts, with $650,000 in stakes but those statistics don't tell the real story of her career.

She won only once at 2 - but it was the Harness Jewels - and then dominated her 3-year-old season like few before her.

She won nine of 12 starts in this country, including the Pascoes Northern Oaks, NZ Oaks, Sales Series Pace, Ladyship Stakes and Nevele R Fillies Final.

"She would be the best filly I have trained because she was tough, more like a colt," said Small.

Lauraella also has the bonus of being a broodmare owner's dream. She is by Christian Cullen from the famous Black Watch family, has the size so important to broodmares and her Karaka sales-topping brother, The Muskeg Express, won a $40,000 race on debut just last Friday.

Lauraella's retirement continues an amazing trend in the past decade, in which almost all winners of the Pascoes Northern Oaks have failed to come back to their best the next season, most being retired before they turned 5.

The obvious exception is 2004 winner Foreal, who went on to be a top open-class mare.

However, other recent Oaks winners are Lizzie Maguire, Running On Faith, Tosti Girl, Dudinka's Star, English Elegance and even the great Elect To Live, who went on to beat the colts in the Australian Derby.

Remarkably, none of those fillies were able to win significant races after their 3-year-old season.

The previous decade was much kinder to the Oaks winners though, with Tupelo Rose, Under Cover Lover, Scuse Me and Tigerish all having great careers as older horses, while other Oaks winners of that decade Iman, Paula Michelle and OK Rock became good broodmares.

With Lauraella now retired the 4-year-old mares' division of the Harness Jewels on June 5 becomes far more open, with stablemates Telemecanique and Crystal Star leading the rankings.

Meanwhile, northern stables have a huge presence in a rare Tuesday afternoon feature race at Ashburton today.

The meeting hosts the $85,000 PGG Wrightson Sales Series Trot, the richest edition of a race which used to be the lowest hanging fruit on harness racing's feature calendar.

Paramount Geegee from the Cambridge stable of John Dickie will dominate betting on the mobile mile after drawing barrier two.

The leggy juvenile is unbeaten in four starts and has the manners to use his handy draw but he does meet two talented types in Cyclone Dream and Springbank Sam.

Cyclone Dream won his only start in the north while Springbank Sam beat older maidens on debut at Addington last week, a rarity for a juvenile trotter this early in the season.

The person who threw a biro pen into the field of horses nearing the finish of the New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington in November has been disqualified for two years and ordered to pay $350 costs after a judicial inquiry.

He was not named when charged by Harness Racing New Zealand.

The charge, deemed to be an action detrimental to the interests of harness racing, was heard by the Judicial Control Authority for racing.

"Not naming the person was to protect his employer from any adverse publicity. We also considered it was a stupid action on the part of the person concerned," Edward Rennell, the general manager of HRNZ, said.

Disqualification will prevent the person entering a race course or undertaking any licensed activities.

Evidence was given at the hearing in Christchurch on March 4 that the person was in a corporate area on the inside of the track about 40m from the finishing line.

Near the end of the race he was waving his arm and threw the pen into the field of horses.

The pen landed about 12m from the pylons marking the inside of the track and about 25m from the winning post.

Racecourse inspector Barry Kitto said that had the pen struck a horseman, horse or sulky, the effect could have been profound.

The person was spoken to by a security guard and escorted back to the corporate area. He contacted the authorities when the matter received publicity and admitted the breach.

He said it was prank that went horribly wrong and an act of drunken stupidity. He said he had consumed about 10 stubbies of lager during the day. He described his condition as "merry but not intoxicated".

Russell McKenzie (chairman) and P.J. Rosanowski, who heard the charge, accepted that alcohol was the likely explanation of the behaviour.

Oaks curse

* Last season's champion pacing filly Lauraella has been retired.

* That continues a horror run for Northern Oaks winners as older mares in the past decade.

* Lauraella will be one of our most commercial young broodmares.

* Northern stables have a huge hand in today's $85,000 feature trot at Ashburton.

- Additional reporting, Otago Daily Times