Ferrando produced his second winner from a handful of starters when Skymax produced a dominant frontrunning performance at Rotorua on Sunday.
The Westbury Stud stallion has only been represented by 11 runners and two of them, Grove Street and Zorro’s Revenge have been black type placed with their respective runner-up finishes in the Listed Ryder Stakes and Listed Champagne Stakes.
All three are prepared by Graeme and Debbie Rogerson and bred by the former who manages the Ferrando Racing Club that races Skymax and Zorro’s Revenge while he is also a part-owner of Grove Street.
Rogerson trained the speed merchant Ferrando, who won eight races including the G3 Mr Tiz Trophy and the Listed Lightning Handicap and was twice placed at Group 1 level in the Telegraph Handicap.
His daughter Skymax showed she had inherited a good degree of that pace when she bounced the gates to make the running over 1400 metres at Rotorua.
She skipped clear at the top of the straight and that proved the winning break with the filly coasting to the line under Rogerson’s granddaughter Bailey sitting quietly to maintain a length and three-quarter margin at the post.
Skymax is the third winner for the unraced Duelled mare En Garde, whose family includes the North American Group winners Foligno and Trokhos.
En Garde has since produced two more daughters of Ferrando and is due to foal again to the son of Fast ‘N’ Famous.
Ferrando’s proven associate sire Swiss Ace also made his presence felt at Rotorua where his daughter Amazonia debuted in style over 1215 metres.
Patiently handled by trained John Bell, the four-year-old was a lead-up trial winner on the course and had the pace to lead from an inside gate for rider Donavan Mansour and they weren’t to be denied in the run home.
Amazonia is out of the Ekraar mare De’Colletage who is a sister to the G1 Captain Cook Stakes winner Ekstreme and also the family of the dual Group 3 winner and G1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas runner-up Blackrock College.