Historian Half-Sister at Karaka 2013
27 January 2013
The Wellington Cup Carnival drew to a close yesterday with Historian (Choisir x Cyclonic) taking out the feature of the last day, the Group 1 Harcourts Thornton Mile (1600m), providing an emotional Gary Alton with his first win at elite level.
Having shown immense promise from the Tony Pike & Mark Donoghue stable early in his career, Historian franked that form with placing’s in the Group 2 Waikato Guineas and Group 1 New Zealand Derby before he was on-sold to Hong Kong where he was due to finish his career.
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Historian is the fifth Group 1 winner for the |
After a set-back when getting ready for his first run in Hong Kong, Historian was subsequently sent back to Gary Alton in Cambridge.
“He was sold up to Hong Kong after he ran in the Derby and unfortunately tore a tendon up there,” commented Alton. “He has always been a very hard pulling horse and hasn’t trained on a racecourse since he’s been back.”
“He does all his work on the treadmill including his galloping and may get out in the arena once a week at home just to have a saddle on his back.”
“It’s a massive thrill, he’s only my second runner in a Group 1 race and he has been horribly unlucky in his last two runs. My father passed away a couple of weeks ago and this really puts a bounce back in everyone’s step.”
“This race has always been the target for him and hopefully he’ll pull up in good form and his legs will be ok. All we can do is hope for the best but there is no real plan in place at the moment. We’ll talk about it next week with Willie Leung who manages the horse while he’s out in NZ for the Sale.”
The pre-race favourite Nashville (Darci Brahma) extinguished his chances when he missed the start badly and managed to do well only beaten 3.4 lengths, while Lady Kipling was huge in defeat only being beaten a short head under her top weight for Opie Bosson.
Historian was purchased from Lyndhurst Farm at the 2009 Select Sale by Chun Hung Ngai for $40,000 and is now the winner of over $530,000.
Highbury Park will offer a half-sister to Historian at Lot 550 of the Select Sale which starts next Wednesday 30 January.
Highbury Park will also offer five yearlings in the Festival Sale which starts next Sunday 3 February. Amongst them are three yearlings by first season sire Roc de Cambes. To view Highbury Park’s Festival Sale draft please, click here.
For news and information about the 2013 Karaka Sales contact reception@nzb.co.nz. Each sale day will be streamed live online at www.nzb.co.nz from 11am (NZ time) each day.