A trio of Westbury Stud graduates combined to credit resident sire Swiss Ace with a winning inter-Island treble on Easter Monday.
Juvenile Domain Ace made the perfect start to his career over 1200 metres at Otaki where Alation carried the familiar silks of Gerry Harvey to victory while Makabar was an effortless winner at the Riverton meeting.
The Team Rogerson-prepared Domain Ace bounced well for rider Craig Grylls to sit on the leader’s quarters and he didn’t need much encouragement to shoot clear in the run home by 1.3l.
“I think he’s something very special, this is a good horse,” Graeme Rogerson said.
“He jumped, he sat and did everything right. You can’t ask for much more than that in his first start to the races. I thought it was a pretty good field as well,”
Bred by Harvey, the youngster was bought out of Westbury’s draft at last year’s Magic Millions National Yearling Sale for A$35,000 by Rogerson.
The Tuhikaramea-based horseman remains in the ownership group after Domain Ace was passed in at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Ready to Run Sale.
Domain Ace holds a nomination for this weekend’s G1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes and Rogerson said a decision on the Trentham feature would be made in the coming days.
He is the first winner for the unraced Hussonet mare Internet, a half-sister to the dual South African Group 1 winer and sire Delago Deluxe.
Internet has a yearling brother to Domain Ace and produced a Reliable Man colt last year before a return visit to Swiss Ace.
Alation has been lightly tried and she didn’t need to find top gear to put away her older rivals over 1600 metres in her third race day appearance.
The filly was quickly into stride to sit in second spot away from the fence and, after taking control at the top of the straight, streaked clear in Courtney Barnes’ hands to win by 2.8l.
Trained by Ben and Ryan Foote, she is a daughter of the Zabeel mare Assertion and the family of the dual Group 1 winner Atomic Force and the Listed Newmarket Handicap winner Red Striker.
Assertion has an unraced Reliable Man two-year-old filly, an El Roca colt and is in foal to Redwood after producing a daughter by the Group 1-winning son of High Chaparral last year.
Meanwhile, Makabar relished the quick back-up at Riverton to score with a minimum of effort over 1400 metres.
The veteran son of Swiss Ace had finished a sound third over 1200 metres on Saturday and when pressed back into action on the second day of the meeting was handsomely rewarded.
“He went a good race on the first day and I did tell people before the first day I thought he was our best chance across the carnival,” co-trainer Michael Pitman said.
“He has a terrific record on wet ground and has been a great horse for the stable since he joined us.
Makabar settled in fourth spot on the fence for Kavish Chowdhoory and took full advantage of a rail run on straightening to lengthen stride and coast home by more than six lengths.
The eight-year-old has now won on nine occasions after graduating from Westbury Stud’s class of 2019 at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale at Karaka where he was purchased by Team Rogerson for $55,000.
He won twice from their Tuhikaramea stable before relocating to the South Island.
Makabar is out of the Encosta De Lago mare Sierra Gold, who is a daughter of the stakes winning Danehill mare Langness.
The second dam is the former champion Australian sprinter Isca, who was the dual Group 1 winner of the Newmarket Handicap and Lightning Stakes.
Also the mother of the multiple winner and black type performer Red Sierra, Sierra Gold has an unraced yearling sister to Makabar and is in foal to El Roca.