Karaka Quinella in Gold Coast Bracelet

A pair of fillies offered at Karaka 2024 dominated the finish of Saturday’s A$160,000 Listed Moet & Chandon Gold Coast Bracelet (1800m), with Nightline (NZ) (Redwood) beating Single Red (NZ) (Vanbrugh).

Nightline was consigned by Westbury Stud in Book 2 of Karaka 2024, where Paul Moroney Bloodstock, Catheryne Bruggeman and Sears Racing bought her for $75,000. She has now earned A$294,100 from an eight-start, four-win career.

Runner-up Single Red was part of Windsor Park Stud’s draft in Book 1, but was passed in with a $60,000 reserve. She has had seven starts for three wins, three placings and A$189,085 in stakes, including a third behind star filly Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park) in the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m).

Trainers Tony and Maddysen Sears have always held Nightline in high regard, and especially after she recorded three wins in a five-race span between November and January including the A$160,000 Eagle way (2100m). That prompted the father-daughter training partnership to set their sights on the Group One Queensland Oaks (2200m), and Saturday’s Gold Coast Bracelet was a big step in that direction.

“I’ve got a good friend here in Lee Freedman, I think he’s a genius trainer, and he’s been telling me for weeks that she’ll win the Oaks,” Tony Sears said. “When someone like Lee tells you that, you’re full of confidence. This horse is very, very special. She’s got gears that probably a lot of horses haven’t got.”

Nightline dropped back to ninth among a 14-horse field on Saturday before jockey Mark Du Plessis weaved her through traffic and into clear air early in the home straight.

Single Red had taken command at that stage and was going to take plenty of catching, but Nightline showed an impressive turn of foot and dashed past her in the final 50 metres to win by just under a length.

“There was a bit of a wall of horses and the filly had to push her way out,” Maddysen Sears said. “She is very, very good, and I just knew she had the turn of foot to win. Mark rode her perfectly, he didn’t panic.”

Nightline is the first foal out of the unraced Decimal (NZ) (El Roca), who was herself offered in Book 2 of Karaka 2019 and failed to make her $25,000 reserve. Decimal is a half sister to the Group Two winner and multiple Group One placegetter Fontelina (Testa Rossa).