Last year’s Karaka yearling sale draft is proving to be a vintage crop for Cambridge farm Wentwood Grange, with several of their fillies shining this spring, including Sweetest Thing, who recorded her maiden stakes success in Saturday’s Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton.
It was Sweetest Thing’s first start for Te Akau trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, with the filly joining their barn after being purchased by Glentree Racing out of Roydon Bergerson’s Awapuni stable following her runner-up effort behind now-stablemate Seize The Day in the Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m).
“She was such a good two-year-old last season running second in the Manawatu Sires’, and it is great to see her back and the Te Akau team doing such a fantastic job with her,” Wentwood Grange’s Dean Hawkins said.
A daughter of Cambridge Stud sire Hello Youmzain, Sweetest Thing is out of winning Irish-bred mare Ocean Drive, a half-sister to Group One performer Reply, who Wentwood Grange purchased out of Inglis’ 2022 Australian Broodmare Sale for A$45,000.
“She’s (Ocean Drive) a Sea the Stars mare that we bought at Inglis in-foal to Lucky Vega and unfortunately she lost that foal,” Hawkins said.
“We bred her to Hello Youmzain (Sweetest Thing), and we haven’t had much luck with her since, she missed to Home Affairs, but she is in-foal to Little Brose. She is in the foaling paddock and hopefully we will have a foal out of her in the next couple of weeks.”
Speed has been top of mind for Hawkins and his brothers, Sean and Leigh, when selecting Ocean Drive’s matings to date, and they are pleased the mare has struck early with Sweetest Thing.
“She (Ocean Drive) is a European-bred mare who won over 2600m, so we wanted to inject a little bit of speed, which is why she went to Hello Youmzain and Little Brose,” Hawkins said. “That has been our breeding protocol with those Northern Hemisphere mares, who do such a fantastic job, but sometimes they just need a little bit of speed injected into them.”
That protocol seems to be working, with Sweetest Thing having now won the Canterbury Belle Stakes and finished runner-up in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes and Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m), from just five starts to date, and has earned more than $180,000 in prizemoney.
Hawkins said Sweetest Thing has always been an impressive individual and fetched $80,000 when purchased at Karaka last year by Chris Rutten and Roydon Bergerson.
“She was a lovely big, strong filly and we sold her at Karaka to Chris Rutten and Roydon Bergerson, who are fantastic judges,” Hawkins said. “It is always great to sell a horse to Chris Rutten because he has such a phenomenal record.”
Wentwood Grange sold another couple of exciting fillies from their Karaka draft last year who are stamping their mark this spring, including Hawea, who won the Listed Chittick Family Fillies Classic (1100m) at Taupo last month, and homebred Pinafore, who closed late to get within a head of Justin Case in Saturday’s Listed Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m) at Hastings.
“It has been a good start for those three-year-old fillies,” Hawkins said.
Hawea looks to be progressing nicely, having taken out her 1050m trial at Te Rapa on Sunday, and the Graham Richardson and Rogan Norvall-trained filly is currently an $8 equal second favourite in the TAB’s futures market for November’s Gr.1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton, with Sweetest Thing at $10 and Pinafore at $31.
“We came second in the 2000 Guineas (Gr.1, 1600m) last year with Affirmative Action, and it is always great to have runners in those spring races,” Hawkins said. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
