As well as launching New Zealand’s 2026-27 Group One racing season with the running of the Proisir Plate (1400m), Saturday’s eagerly anticipated 10-race card at Ellerslie also marks the return of one of this country’s most prestigious and long-running series.
Now in its 55th year, the NZB Filly of the Year Series begins this weekend in the $150,000 Group Three Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Sunline Vase (1200m).
NZB is strongly committed to encouraging and rewarding thoroughbred excellence through supporting fillies and mares’ racing in New Zealand. With its proud half-century of history, the NZB Filly of the Year Series has become an important target for the leading three-year-old fillies of each New Zealand season. The overall winner immediately becomes a highly valuable breeding proposition and also earns her connections $50,000 in bonus cheques – $10,000 for her breeder, $10,000 for her trainer and $30,000 for her owner.
The NZB Filly of the Year Series has repeatedly unveiled superstars of the racetrack and the breeding barn throughout the last five and a half decades, and the latest addition to that list is last season’s winner Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park), who went on to add the Group One Australian Oaks (2400m) in Sydney to her domestic successes in the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m), Group Two Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m) and Group Two David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2100m).
Now a new crop of three-year-old fillies have their chance to shine through a series that spans 11 races between September and February, over distances ranging from 1200 all the way up to 2400 metres.
The first leg is the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Sunline Vase, which is worth 6 points for the winner, 3 for second and 1.5 for third.
It has drawn a highly talented field of 10 fillies, including last-start Group Three Northland Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) winner She’s No Saint (Prague), last season’s $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) winner Dream Roca (NZ) (El Roca), stakes-winning filly Miss Janet (Home Affairs) and the stakes-placed Latoya (NZ) (Proisir), Silhouette (NZ) (Armory) and Bella Bonita (NZ) (Noverre).
The Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Sunline Vase will be run as Race 7 at Ellerslie on Saturday, with a scheduled start time of 3.24pm.
