Another Pins Filly To the Fore
1 December 2006
Three-year-old filly Porotene Gem (Pins x Rubyfoo) won the Group 1 Automotivepryde Levin Classic (1600m) in fine style yesterday. In a Karaka quinella, Porotene Gem, with David Walker in the saddle, came up on the inside of Jokers Wild (Black Minnaloushe x Miss Rory) half way down the straight to beat last year's Champion Two-Year-Old by one-and-a-half lengths. Figueres (Star Way x Figurante) was a further length-and-a-quarter away in third.
Porotene Gem was a NZ$5,000 purchase as a weanling by Stratford couple Anne and Kemp Broughton at the 2004 National Weanling and Broodmare Sale from the draft of Delph Common. She now has three wins to her credit from just five starts and has amassed over NZ$140,000 in prize-money.
Delighted trainer Kevin Gray indicated that the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks is the long term target for the filly. However, the earlier focus will be the Group 3 Ezibuy Eulogy Stakes at Awapuni later this month.
Gray is no stranger to the progeny of Pins, having already trained four-year-old filly Legs (Pins x River Century) to win two Group One races, the New Zealand Bloodstock New Zealand Oaks last autumn and the Kelt Capital Stakes (2000m) at Hastings in October.
Porotene Gem's win gives the Waikato Stud based sire his fourth Group One winner - the others being Karaka graduates El Segundo (Pins x Palos Verdes) and Econsul (Pins x Gypsy Soul) with his oldest crop only being five-year-olds.
There are 45 progeny by Pins catalogued for Sale across New Zealand Bloodstock's National Yearling Sales Series which starts with the Premier Sale on 29 January 2007.