Kiwi bred Gringotts continued his coming-of-age campaign with a powerhouse front-running performance under 60kg to win Saturday’s Group III A$1 million The Illawarra Mercury Gong (1600m) at Kembla Grange.
The Per Incanto gelding continued an outstanding run in the race for New Zealand-breds, who have now won it three years in a row. Riodini won The Gong in 2022, followed by Detonator Jack in 2023.
Gringotts went into Saturday’s race on an upward trajectory. He had claimed his first black-type success in the Listed Members’ Handicap (1600m) at Doomben in his final start of the previous season in May, then returned to action this spring with runner-up finishes in the Gr.3 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m) and the A$1.5 million Alan Brown Stakes (1400m). The five-year-old took his career to new heights with his last-start victory in the A$3 million The Big Dance (1600m).
Saturday’s The Gong was a new challenge, jumping from gate 14 in a 16-horse field and carrying clear topweight. But under a positive ride from Tommy Berry, Gringotts dominated the race from the front.
He led virtually every step of the way, then shook off the challenge of Suparazi down the Kembla Grange straight and raced to victory by three-quarters of a length.
“I think he’s better than what I first thought he was,” Berry said. “It’s not easy for a horse to win with 60kg, and he was almost toying with them in the straight. I think he spotted the horse out wide on the track at about the same time I did, and then he put the afterburners on. He had more to give.
“He seems to just get better as his preps go on. You saw that in his last preparation, when they were trying to win their way into The Big Dance. Now they’re just letting him do the talking.
“I’ve had some tricky gates, but I don’t know if I can take too much credit either. He’s a very easy horse to ride.”
The Ciaron Maher-trained Gringotts has now had 17 starts for nine wins, seven placings and more than A$3 million in stakes for an ownership group headed by Ozzie Kheir and John O’Neill.
Maher and his team will now consider raising the bar again for a shot at the A$2 million Gr. 2 The Ingham (1600m) at Randwick on December 14.
“He’s definitely getting better and better all the time,” assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said. “His target in this preparation was The Big Dance, and he got the job done there. But for him to continue into this race and do what he did today is great.
“He briefly looked vulnerable, but when he saw the horse on the outside, he actually went again. I think he had more to give.
“He’ll keep improving. He’s done a very good job in this preparation, but he’ll be a proper horse going forward.
“If you see him every day, he’s still doing a lot wrong on a day-to-day basis and has a tendency to get hot. There’s still so much learning to come.
“The way he did it today, especially from that gate and with that weight, I think he’ll be hard to beat if we go to The Ingham with him.”
Gringotts was bred by Totara Park Stud and is by Little Avondale Stud’s outstanding sire Per Incanto out of the Savabeel mare Miss Bluebell. Herself unraced, Miss Bluebell is a daughter of Operavega, whose half-sister Vegas Showgirl was the dam of the legendary Winx.
Miss Bluebell’s half-sister Miss Vegas was in the spotlight this week when her two-year-old son by Proisir sold for $650,000 during the Ready to Run Sale at Karaka.
Miss Bluebell is the dam of two stakes performers from three foals to race. The other is Millefiori, who has won seven races for Te Akau Racing and placed in the Listed Great Easter Stakes (1400m).
Gringotts was offered by Archer Park in Book 1 of Karaka 2021, where Kasa Bloodstock bought him for $100,000. He was re-offered at the Ready to Run Sale later that year, but failed to meet his $450,000 reserve. He was subsequently sold privately after winning a trial at Waipa for Simon and Katrina Alexander. – NZ Racing Desk.
