Damask Rose (NZ) Stakes Karaka Millions 3YO Claim

Runner-up in $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) last January, Te Akau Racing’s super-talented filly Damask Rose (NZ) (Savabeel) is set to return to Ellerslie a year later to attempt to go one better in the $1.5m TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m).

Damask Rose was bred by Tony Rider, who offered the Savabeel filly in his Milan Park draft during Book 1 of Karaka 2023. She was bought by David Ellis for $200,000. From four starts, Damask Rose has now recorded two wins and two placings and earned $228,535.

Trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson unveiled Damask Rose for a debut appearance at New Plymouth in December of last year, where she scored a comfortable victory in maiden two-year-old grade.

She was thrown in at the deep end less than a month later, taking on the Karaka Millions 2YO in only her second career start. She rose to the occasion with an outstanding run to finish second, beating everyone except that season’s champion two-year-old Velocious (Written Tycoon).

Damask Rose had only one start in the spring, running third in the Group Three Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings in early September. The first and second placegetters, Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) and Captured By Love (Written Tycoon), went on to also run the quinella in last month’s Group One New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m).

Walker and Bergerson decided against following that path with Damask Rose, instead saving her for a summer campaign centred around the Karaka Millions 3YO. She showed she was right on track for that target with an outstanding performance in Saturday’s $65,000 Wentwood Grange 3YO (1200m) at Te Rapa, winning with ease despite carrying a 59-kilogram topweight.

Damask Rose now has a rating of 75, which puts her in equal fourth on the order of entry for the Karaka Millions 3YO, and the TAB rates her a $3 fixed-odds favourite for the big race.

Fillies have won four of the last five editions of the Karaka Millions 3YO – Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel) in 2020, Pin Me Up (NZ) (Pins) in 2022, Prowess (NZ) (Proisir) in 2023 and Orchestral (NZ) (Savabeel) last year. Damask Rose is showing promising credentials to continue that trend.

“We resisted the temptation of going to Riccarton with this filly,” Walker said on Saturday. “We’re working our way backwards from the Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) and also the NZB Kiwi (1500m).

“We just thought we’d give Riccarton a miss, and that would give her the best chance of getting to those two big races in Auckland. They can’t go to every dance. I think we’ve done the right thing.

“She had a few weeks out at the farm after the Gold Trail, where she put on some good condition and has come back looking super.

“She’s a really nice filly. She could potentially end up being pretty good, I think. Her next start will be in the Auckland Guineas (Group Two, 1400m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.”

Damask Rose was ridden to Saturday’s win by Opie Bosson, who guided Probabeel to her historic Karaka Millions 2YO & 3YO double in 2019 and 2020. The champion jockey has no doubt that Damask Rose has big-race quality.

“She gave me a great feel,” Bosson said. “She feels like she’s back, big time. The further she goes, the better she’ll be. I think she has a chance to go on and win races like the Karaka Millions and the new slot race.”

The TAB Karaka Millions 3YO is part of a stellar six-race twilight meeting at Ellerslie on January 25, which sets the scene for a spectacular week of Karaka 2025 selling action.