Filly of the Year News

New Zealand Bloodstock announced today that the Insurance arm of the company will add the Group 2 Championship Stakes to their stable of sponsored stakes races.

The CEO of Auckland Racing Club, Chris Weaver said, "The Club is delighted to have New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance as the sponsor of the Championship Stakes. This race has long been important to three-year-old fillies, both for the late developers to secure all important black type or for those fillies being aimed at the rich Oaks races across the Tasman".

New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance manager, Jim Bruford, added, "With the help of our AAA-rated underwriters in London, Lexington Insurance Company, it is a great pleasure to be able to sponsor another race of this calibre. We have a 10 year association with Lexington and are always looking for opportunities to support our industry."

The New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance Championship Stakes is the last race in the coveted New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series. It is run at Ellerslie on March 5.

This weekend's second day of the Waikato Racing Club's million dollar carnival features the penultimate leg of the Series, the Group 2 Cambridge Stud Sir Tristram Fillies Classic.

With a number of last month's Oaks contenders now in the spelling paddock the race has attracted several fillies that are new to the Filly of the Year Series.

Promising Moira Murdoch trained filly Gemstone (Pentire x Gemscay) is the highest rated filly following a string of three wins and two thirds. This will be her first start in a stakes race and she will come up against seasoned stakes performers like Sahara Flight (Towkay x Rustic Flight) who finished third in the Group 1 Smokefree New Zealand Oaks, Myladys (Kingfisher Mill x Perspicacious) who ran second in the Listed New Zealand Bloodstock Castleton Stakes and Tusker (Volksraad x Stella Artois) who ran third in last month's Group 3 WRC Hyundai Wellington Stakes.

The current point standings in the series are:

The Group 2 Cambridge Stud Sir Tristram Fillies Classic offers 8 points for first, 4 points for second and 2 points for third.

Despite the generous points available in the last two races Justa Tad (Istidaad x Infinity) has sealed the series with an unassailable lead. The Rudy Liefting trained filly has had a phenomenal season winning four of the ten races in the series and finishing an impressive second in another.

Immediately following this weekend's Cambridge Stud Sir Tristram Fillies Classic New Zealand Bloodstock sponsor a 2000 metre three and four-year-old race. The $27,500 race has drawn a full field including the likes of Shinko Prince, Zalika, Dreamsize, Fooram and Last Claim.

For more information about New Zealand Bloodstock's Filly of the Year Series or New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance see their website, http://www.nzb.co.nz/.