La Dorada shines in Sires’ Produce, boosts Two-Year-Old of the Year bid

La Dorada won the Sires’ Produce at Trentham. Photo / Race Images

La Dorada presented racing experts with a late-season headache with a dominant display in the $550,000 Sires’ Produce at Trentham on Saturday.

But for her managing owners Te Akau, it is a good problem to have.

The Karaka Million winner destroyed her rivals in the Group 1 Sires’ to give her victory in two of our biggest three juvenile races this season, with Saturday’s even more impressive than her Karaka Millions triumph.

She sat in the one-one and jockey Michael McNab had the confidence to ask her to establish a winning break before she was fully into the home straight before she won like a filly of the rarest class.

“I have been beaten by short margins in some big Group 1s this season so to get that was really nice,” said McNab.

“She is a special filly.”

Until La Dorada’s stunner yesterday, her stablemate Return To Conquer, who is unbeaten and won our only other Group 1 juvenile race – the Sistema Stakes, would have been favourite for the coveted Two-Year-Old of the Year title when the awards are handed out at season’s end.

With Return To Conquer being a colt with hopefully a future stud career and La Dorada a beautifully-bred filly the title would be a value addition to their breeding resumes.

The vote is further complicated as the pair have never raced each other and they won’t this season, both heading for a spell.

La Dorada’s effortless victory underlined a wonderful training performance from Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, the filly having missed the Sistema with a high temperature, so having not raced for 42 days.

Her win in the last Group 1 of the season also capped a golden run for Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth, who looks set for a major service fee increase as the big-time wins now come on both sides of the Tasman.

Her victory was the highlight of a day on which the black type races ran to form, with both Kiwi Skyhawk and Waitak easy winners.

Kiwi Skyhawk came out of the NZ Derby to win the Manawatū Classic and could even race on this term, with a Queensland campaign possible.

Waitak relished the step up to 2100m in the $200,000 Awapuni Gold Cup in a win that will open plenty of doors for him next season.

The winner of the Railway just 16 months ago, he now looks more comfortable at 1600m right up to 2100m and that gives trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott a plethora of options, crucially at weight-for-age too, as Waitak has now all but won his way out of handicap racing.

Kiwi Skyhawk’s trainer Stephen Marsh had another dream day with three wins at Trentham, but just as importantly, his stable sweetheart Velocious returned with a brave victory at Te Aroha.

Last season’s Karaka Millions winner and Two-Year-Old of the Year hadn’t raced since September with a throat issue requiring a tie-back operation, but even after being slow away, her class shone through.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.