Kermadec (NZ) Claims Another Kiwi Victory in the G1 Doncaster

Kiwi three-year-old Kermadec (NZ) (Teofilo) become the fourth consecutive New Zealand bred winner of the Group 1 A$3million The Star 150th Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Royal Randwick.

Kermadec continues the kiwi success in the Doncaster Handicap as the seventh New Zealand bred horse to have won in the last eight races. Sacred Falls (NZ) (O’Reilly) won the 2013 and 2014 editions of the Doncaster Handicap following More Joyous (NZ) (More Than Ready), Rangirangdoo (NZ) (Pentire), Vision and Power (NZ) (Carnegie) and Triple Honour’s (NZ) (Honours List) success in the race.

Trained by Chris Waller, Kermadec carries the colours of owner Neville Morgan who also owns fellow kiwi and Karaka graduate Rangirangdoo, winner of the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap in 2010. With a total of three wins from his eight starts, his first stakes win came in his third start in the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day.

Starting from barrier 16 in the capacity field of 20 horses, Kermadec was ridden by leading jockey Glen Boss, in what was their first partnership. The early stages of the race saw Kermadec settle to the tail of the field as Ninth Legion (Fastnet Rock) took the lead. Travelling at a strong pace, he struggled to find room turning into the home straight but managed to push between runners to challenge for the lead.

Kermadec surged to the lead and drew away from Real Impact (Deep Impact) to win by one-and-three-quarter lengths over Real Impact and stablemate Royal Descent (Redoute’s Choice) who finished in second and third position respectively.

Winning the Group 1 Doncaster Mile has increased the three-year-old colt’s prizemoney to A$2,217,025 for his owner Morgan.

The son of Teofilo was purchased at the 2013 Karaka Premier Sale by Mulcaster Bloodstock for $260,000 from Wentwood Grange.

“If you look at his last three runs he probably should have won all of them,” said Guy Mulcaster. “He was very unlucky in the Australian Guineas in Melbourne and he got distracted in the gates the other day at Rosehill and didn’t have much luck up the straight.

“He had to jump through a lot of hoops to get into the field yesterday and I think everything came into line once he got a start. We have been very confident with him all the way through and we are just very happy he has won his Group 1 and we think he will have a lot more to come in the Spring.

“We buy a number of nice horses at Karaka every year for good clients and with the likes of Neville Morgan and Raffles Farm they are pretty happy to go with what we say, particularly with the success we have seen with the likes of Preferment and twice Doncaster winner Sacred Falls.”

Mulcaster also purchased Sacred Falls, owned by Raffles Racing, who had won the previous two runnings of the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap but could not make it a historic treble of wins in the race having to carry topweight of 58kgs this year.

Bred by Llanhennock Trust, Kermadec is out of stakes winning mare Hy Fuji (Fuji Kiseki), winner of the Listed Tattersalls Plate, and is a half-brother to Good Winning (Al Maher), second placed in the Listed Perak Derby.

Fellow Karaka graduate Mongolian Khan (Holy Roman Emperor) had earlier in the day won the Group 1 Australian Derby for kiwi trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman, becoming the seventh kiwi bred or sold horse to win the race in the past nine years. The kiwi success started earlier in the day with Tremec (NZ) (Zabeel) winning the Group 2 Chairman’s Handicap, his second victory in the race having also won it in 2013.

Yesterday’s result’s replicated last year’s start to The Championship by kiwi horses. Last year it was Criterion (NZ) (Sebring), who won the Group 1 Australian Derby, and Sacred Falls (NZ), who won the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap, as New Zealand bred horses. The two-day ‘The Championship’ last year finished with New Zealand bred horses winning half of the Group 1 races, the most of any country.