High-class mare Lekvarte is in line for a crack at higher honours following another impressive winning display at Randwick on Saturday.
The good-looking grey daughter of Westbury Stud resident Reliable Man was untroubled to put her rivals away in the G3 Aspiration Quality over 1600 metres at Randwick and continue her stellar run of form.
The Joseph Pride-trained mare now has eight career victories from 27 appearances to her credit and has gone to a new level this preparation.
Lekvarte was a first-up winner at Newcastle before following up at Rosehill and then added the G3 Belle of the Turf Stakes at Gosford to her resume.
The mare was then freshened and returned to finish fifth in the G2 Millie Fox Stakes over 1400 metres last month at Rosehill.
“She raced through the summer, but just had the three runs, and I gave her a freshen up to come back and her run the other day was exceptional,” said Pride.
“The punters worked that out, she started favourite and that was a good win.
“She really sprouted wings, coming through the centre of them and that’s the way she’s racing now, as a five-year-old she’s really started to hit her straps as a racehorse.
“They might want me to race her on for another 12 months yet.”
Lekvarte has also made a compelling argument for a quick return to action in next Saturday’s G1 Coolmore Classic over 1500 metres at Rosehill, with Pride to make a call in the coming days.
“Who knows, we might be able to back up yet, but this looked the right race for her,” he said.
“The way she’s going, she still seems to be improving which is not totally unusual in a horse her age and I’m really happy with her.”
Lekvarte was slowly into stride and settled at the back of the field before they worked their way into the clear 300 metres from home and the five-year-old quickly hit top gear to overpower her rivals.
“No matter how much I try and wake her up in the barriers, she just flops out,” Berry said.
“She doesn’t really give herself a chance in the early stages of her races, but when you’ve got a mare that can let down like she does, it opens up a lot of doors.
“I was in the middle of the ruck in the straight and didn’t know where we were going to go, but I just banked on her ability and had to ride her patient. I knew I had a horse with a better turn of foot than anyone else in the race.
“It’s great to do it for the owners, who are good friends of mine and have been waiting to get a horse like this for a long time, so it’s awesome.”
Lekvarte was bred by Stewart Hume and was purchased out of Westbury’s 2020 draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale for $210,000 by BK Racing & Breeding and Andrew Williams Bloodstock.
She is a half-sister to the multiple winner and stakes performer Total Power with their dam the Encosta De Lago mare Plumm.
They are out of Madame Plume was successful on seven occasions and finished runner-up in the G1 South Australian Oaks.