New Zealand’s flagship racecourse is about to roar back to life after a six-month hiatus, and two stellar days of Christmas Carnival racing at Ellerslie will feature two legs of the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series – starting on Boxing Day with the $120,000 Group Two Jamieson Park Eight Carat Classic (1600m).
Ellerslie’s last race meeting was in early June, and all of its scheduled fixtures through the early part of the season were relocated to other tracks due to the COVID-19 Delta outbreak. There could be no better way to celebrate racing’s return to Auckland than the traditional Boxing Day meeting, of which the Eight Carat has become a pivotal part.
Run as the fifth leg of the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series, the Eight Carat Classic has delivered decades of high-quality contests, with its roll of honour from the last 25 years including the Group One winners Champagne (NZ) (Zabeel), La Bella Dama (NZ) (Desert Sun), Vapour Trail (NZ) (Jetball), Veloce Bella (NZ) (Volksraad), Katie Lee (Pins), Planet Rock (Fastnet Rock), Volpe Veloce (Foxwedge), and the two most recent winners, Jennifer Eccles (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) and Amarelinha (NZ) (Savabeel).
This year’s field is headed by Belle En Rouge (NZ) (Burgundy), who has already earned 11 points in the NZB Filly of the Year Series so far, having won this month’s Group Three Eulogy Stakes (1600m) after placing in the Group One New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) and Group Three Soliloquy Stakes (1400m).
Belle En Rouge currently sits in second place on the points table, just 1 point behind stablemate The Perfect Pink (NZ) (Savabeel), who won the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton last month.
Mustang Valley (NZ) (Vanbrugh) heads into Sunday’s Eight Carat Classic with 3 points to her name, having finished second in the Group Three Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) in September. She ran fifth in both the Soliloquy Stakes and the 1000 Guineas.
Flash Mary (NZ) (El Roca) has been Listed-placed twice in her seven-start career, while the likes of Karman Line (NZ) (Myboycharlie), Lady Koval (American Pharoah), Verona (NZ) (Belardo) and Social Distance (NZ) (Savabeel) have scored impressive victories in lower grades.
The Jamieson Park Eight Carat Classic is worth 8 points to the winner, with 4 points for second and 2 for third.
It will be run as Race 5 on Ellerslie’s star-studded Boxing Day card, with a start time of 2.44pm.
