The New Zealand raiders may have come up short in the first Group 1 of the season at Randwick today but three Kiwis based in Sydney still got the rich prize.
Verry Elleegant, who started her career in New Zealand and is still part-owned here, was incredibly brave winning theA$500,000 Winx Stakes for Kiwi trainer Chris Waller and expat superstar jockey James McDonald.
The high-class mare overcame being trapped wide for much of the 1400m Group 1 and looked beaten at the 200m mark when New Zealand-bred Star Of The Seas went past her but McDonald was yet to ask Verry Elleegant to her best.
When he did she fought back to win it, providing the New Zealand breeding industry with a quinella to start the Australasian Group 1 season, beating home high-class big-race winners originally from Japan, Great Britain and the United States in racing's clash of nations.
Such heights are a long way from how Verry Elleegant started her career in low stakes winter races here in New Zealand two years ago before being sold for what at the time seemed enormous money for a daughter of former hack stallion Zed.
Since then Zed has left more and more good horses to but Verry Elleegant is his masterpiece, now the winner of nearly A$3.7 million in stakes and looking every inch a Cox Plate and even Melbourne Cup horse.
"She might be the toughest mare I have ever ridden," said McDonald.
"Chris and his team deserve enormous credit for the great work they have done with her because she hasn't always been easy."
While the New Zealand-trained pair in the Winx Stakes were both well beaten there was enough to like about their efforts.
The Bostonian loomed out of the trail at the top of the straight and looked a winning hope before he blew out while nothing went right for Melody Belle, who got back and never really got clear in the home straight.
She was making good ground as they hit the line, albeit it in 11th place, and she looks ready for 1600m or even further, hardly surprising at her age.
Her trainer Jamie Richards had reason for a far bigger smile earlier in the Randwick programme when Probabeel exceeded expectations in her comeback race.
The wonderful mare flew late between her rivals for second in the A$160,000 Show County Quality over a 1200m distance well short of her best.
It was her best fresh-up run and she looked more dialled in than she sometimes does, not hitting her usual flat spot around the home when sandwiched between runners.
While there are plenty more chapters to be written in the story of this Sydney spring carnival she looks a genuine hope in the Epsom in October.
** On the local front Demonetization was the star of the show at Matatama, carrying 60kgs to win the main race in a style of a horse who could factor in the early season group races, especially on rain-affected tracks.
