Racing: The little NZ filly who did win $1m Australian Oaks

Jockey Damian Lane with trainer Jim Wallace after Pennyweka won the Group 1 A$1 million Australian Oaks at Randwick. Photo / Bradley Photography FREE FOR EDITORIAL USE

Pennyweka saved the most unexpected gift of a golden autumn for New Zealand racing until last with a win in the A$1 million Australian Oaks in Sydney yesterday.

The New Zealand Oaks winner sat three wide for the 2400m race before racing to the lead at the top of the straight, and when the locals challenged at the 200m, she found more and raced clear.

The Group 1 victory was the fourth by a New Zealand-trained female galloper in Australia in five weeks, starting with Legarto in the Australian Guineas. Imperatriz was next in the William Reid, Prowess beat up the Aussie fillies in the Vinery Stakes two weeks ago, and when she went home, Pennyweka crossed the Tasman to finish the job.

As great as the other wins were, Pennyweka’s was different.

She is trained by 76-year-old Opaki horseman Jim Wallace, who rarely has more than a few horses racing and before this season had trained 18 winners for $216,000 in stakes in the previous 10 years.

Now he has Pennyweka, owned by a syndicate of more than 80, 40 of whom made their way from around New Zealand to Sydney yesterday to watch their little filly win the A$580,000 first prize.

The syndicate, at Wallace’s behest, paid a A$22,000 late entry fee after she bolted away with the New Zealand Oaks at Trentham on March 18 to get her into yesterday’s classic.

Wallace then had to find a jockey and was lucky enough to get Damian Lane, whom he had never met before legging him on to Pennyweka.

But this story also has a sad side, with Wallace’s mother having died just two days before the NZ Oaks triumph on March 18 and his daughter-in-law passing away a month earlier, so the close-knit family has endured an autumn of incredible heartache and unlikely triumph.

Pennyweka is now in the mix for the title of New Zealand three-year-old of the year at the national awards come September, up against Sharp ‘N’ Smart, Legarto and Prowess, who have all also won Group 1s on both sides of the Tasman.

There was no other joy for the Kiwis at Randwick yesterday.

Fellow filly Polygon looked bogged down and struggled in the Oaks, Ethereal Star was unplaced after having to race outside the leader in her juvenile fillies’ race and Levante never got clear when sixth in the A$1m Queen of the Turf.