It’s Pimms Time In Group 2

Pins mare Pimms Time (ex Brampton Legs, by Zabeel) was given a tough task on Saturday when making her stakes debut against a hot field in the $100,000 Group 2 Travis Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa and she produced a performance that has labelled her as one of the most improved mares in the country.

Coming into the race with just 11 starts to her name, four of which she had won, Pimms Time’s  rivals in the Group 2 Travis Stakes included Group 1 winners Viadana and Quintessential and stakes winners O’Fille, Postmans Daughter, Amberio and Jeu de Cartes.

Pimms Time is the 7th stakes winner for her sire Pins this season

Despite the imposing line-up, the Guy Lowry & Grant Cullen trained mare produced a brilliant performance under jockey Mark Sweeney, racing at the back of the field before being brought between runners on the turn and holding off the late finishing O’Fille (O’Reilly) to win by a long neck.

“It was her first race over 2000 metres so it was a very good performance,” commented co-trainer Guy Lowry. “We have always rated her very highly but she has taken some time to mature and she will be even better in six months.

“We now have to figure out where she will go next. We would like to take her to Brisbane for the Doomben Cup but if we can’t get her there we will send her to the paddock. The first two races of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown are what we will be looking at aiming her at next season.”

The four-year-old mare is raced by Mrs P McCarroll and C, H, M, & S Whyte and has won four of her last five starts including her last race before Saturday’s Group 2 where she won at Hawke’s Bay by just under half a length after getting back in the field.

Bred by Eric & Moira  Johnston, Pimms Time was purchased by Bruce Perry Bloodstock from Waikato Stud at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2010 Karaka Premier Sale for $60,000. She has now won five of her 12 starts for over $100,000 in stakes.

Pimms Time is the 51st stakes winner - and the 7th stakes winner of the season - for her sire Pins who stands at Waikato Stud. She is also the 108th stakes winner for her dam-sire Zabeel who is having another successful season as a broodmare sire with the likes of It’s a Dundeel, Ocean Park and Silent Achiever.

Pins will have 10 weanlings in next week’s National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale (8-10 May) at Karaka, as well as racehorses and broodmares. To view his entries, click here.