Group Two Breakthrough for Pondalowie

After seven previous top-six finishes in black-type company, under-rated mare Pondalowie (Deep Field) broke through in style in the A$300,000 Group Two Asahi Super Dry Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday.

Expat New Zealand trainers Emma-Lee and David Browne paid $150,000 to buy Pondalowie from Book 1 of Karaka 2022, where she was offered by Prima Park. The six-year-old mare’s 22-race career has now produced four wins, three placings and A$394,275 in stakes.

Pondalowie’s earlier appearances in stakes company had produced a second in the Listed Alinghi Stakes (1100m) and fourths in the Group Two Rose Of Kingston Stakes (1400m), Listed WJ Adams Stakes (1000m) and Listed Cranbourne Cup (1600m). She also ran fifth in the Listed Tontonan Stakes (1400m) and sixth in the Group Three Summoned Stakes (1600m) and Group Three Ladies’ Day Vase (1600m).

It was Pondalowie’s day on Saturday. After being badly blocked in the straight and appearing to be in an almost hopeless position with 200 metres to run, jockey Lachlan Neindorf found a way through and Pondalowie produced an explosive finishing burst to get up and win by a short half-head.

“She’s a good mare and she can win good races – she just needs the right luck,” Neindorf said.

“I found a lot of bad luck today. She was in what seemed like an unwinnable position at the 200, but she’s shown in the past that that’s when she can really let rip. She let rip today and she got over the top of them.

“We’re a pretty close-knit team at Pakenham, and David and Emma-Lee are great people. They put their heart and soul into it, and so do their daughters. It’s good to team up with them and win a good race.”

David Browne admitted that he had almost written Pondalowie off halfway down the long Flemington straight.

“I thought we were no hope,” he said. “I was a bit more hopeful early in the race, with the favourite caught wide and deep and doing a bit of work, but then we were pocketed so badly in the straight. I just thought, ‘She’ll get home well once she gets out.’

“She can gallop and sprint like no horse we’ve ever had, and today she showed it. When she’s jammed in behind them like that and gets the first half of the race right, she breathes a bit better and gets enough air to finish the race off strongly.”