Highly regarded three-year-old Coulthard has gone out on a high following his dominant winning performance at Trentham.
The Redwood gelding gave his age group rivals weight and a beating over 1600 metres on Saturday to earn a short break.
“He’ll go out now and then come back for the spring,” trainer Lisa Latta said.
He set up a winning double at Trentham for Westbury Stud resident Redwood with promising staying mare Who Knows successful later on the card.
Raced by breeder Gerry Harvey, Coulthard settled back in the small field before rider Jonathan Riddell urged him forward across the top and he finished too well for his rivals.
He now has a brace of wins and three placings from seven appearances, including a luckless previous third at Wanganui where cleared a pocket late and powered home for third.
Coulthard also suffered an interrupted run when he finished midfield in the G3 Manawatu Classic at the end of March.
“He still does a bit wrong with his high head carriage, but I think he’s a pretty smart horse,” Latta said.
Coulthard is a son of the More Than Ready mare Best Of British, whose dam Britomart is a half-sister to the G2 QTC Cup winner and dual Group One placegetter Into The Night.
It is also the family of the G1 Galaxy Handicap winner and sire Jetball and the Singapore Derby winner Hard Too Think.
Back in foal to Redwood, Best Of British is also the dam of Trident (eight wins) and Dragon Air Force (three wins) and has a yearling filly by El Roca.
Meanwhile, the Niall Quinn-prepared Who Knows disputed much of the pace for rider Kate Hercock in her return to middle distance racing and proved superior to her Rating 75 rivals over 2200 metres.
“She’s a pretty progressive mare and we were happy with her going into the race,” Quinn said,
“She’s a nice, honest horse and we’ll keep taking her through the grades.”
The three-time winner is a granddaughter of former top Zabeel mare Cinder Bella, the dual Group 1 winer of the Kelt Capital Stakes and Captain Cook Stakes.