Racing: Rising Romance turns on Ellerslie stunner

James McDonald. Photo / Natalie Slade

James McDonald jumped off Rising Romance after a beaten run in the group one Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington on Derby Day and told co-trainer Donna Logan: "She's not a weight-for-age horse yet, but she will be one day." We all now know when that day arrived.

On a day of superlative performances at Ellerslie on Saturday, Rising Romance turned in just about the best of them in coming from an impossible position to score in her first race start since that Mackinnon Stakes run.

This was pure magnificence. The class mare was last to the home bend in a slowly run race, making it virtually impossible to outsprint the entire field in front of her.

Even the astute Samantha Logan, daughter of Dean and Donna, couldn't get her head around it. In charge of the team at Ellerslie with mum at a family wedding in Rarotonga, she said: "Halfway down the straight I thought she couldn't possibly do better than second or third."

But outstanding horses don't finish close seconds or thirds - they find a way to win even when they seemingly can't.

Rising Romance is a brute of a horse now compared to the filly that won the AJC Oaks and the young mare that finished third in the Caulfield Cup in the spring.

Rising Romance will have her next start before embarking on an Australian campaign in the Group One $200,000 NZ Stakes (2000m) on the final day of the Ellerslie carnival.

"It's magnificent to be on a horse of her class," said apprentice Lee Magorrian. "The power she drove with was remarkable."

Silent Achiever went a blinder in the too-short Apollo Stakes in Sydney on Saturday, getting home strongly down the outside in the final 200m.

Mention needs to be made of Prima, a forgotten horse despite his good third to Mongolian Khan in the Waikato Guineas two starts back.

On Saturday he turned in an equally gallant run for second to the same horse in the Avondale Guineas.

Prima is tiny, but has the heart of a lion.