Talented sprinter Gift of Power took her stakes-winning tally to three at Otaki on Friday when she won the Listed Fasttrack Insurance Levin Stakes (1200m) in dominant fashion.
The
four-year-old mare was caught three-wide in an early speed duel with Shadow Fox
and race-favourite Indecision, but jockey Lisa Allpress was able to wrestle the
ascendancy for the role of pacemaker and the daughter of Power was never
headed.
The Team Rogerson-trained runner set a blistering pace to distance her rivals, winning by two and a half lengths over Rock 'N' Affair in a slick time of 1.09.59.
"She was certainly dominant. It takes a very good young mare to do that, sit three wide, do the work and leave them behind," co-trainer Graeme Rogerson said.
"Michelle (Northcote, travelling foreman) said her work on Tuesday morning was as good as she's ever worked.
"I think she is a mare in the top bracket and it would be nice to win a Group One with her."
The $180,000 New Zealand Bloodstock yearling sale purchase will get her chance at the elite level in the coming months, with the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) at Ellerslie on New Year's Day and Gr.1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) at Trentham in January on her hit-list.
"She's in the Railway and Telegraph and I think she is going back to Manawatu for an open sprint in two weeks' time," Rogerson said.
"She's better left-handed, although she has been placed at Ellerslie."
Rogerson has got a lot of time for the mare, a daughter of Group One-placed Capital Diamond, who descends from the famed Eight Carat-family, and said her connections will be weighing up their options with the mare in the near future.
"She's a very top-class mare and what's her value as a broodmare now? She's from the best pedigree, she's won nine races now."
Her victory is timely for Cambridge Stud who will offer a Tavistock half-brother to Gift of Power at New Zealand Bloodstock's Book 1 session at their Yearling Sale in January next year as Lot 622. – NZ Racing Desk
