Kisses Joins NZB Southern Filly Series Leaders

Three-year-old filly Kisses has given her sire Iffraaj a chance of taking a rare piece of history with a dominant win in Saturday’s $50,000 Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes (1600m), the third leg of NZB’s Southern Filly of the Year Series.

Trained by brothers Mark Fraser-Campin & Chris Campin, Kisses (ex La Marmalade) now shares in New Zealand Bloodstock’s Southern Filly of the Year Series lead with Emerald Queen and Annabel Rose who are all on seven points.

Iffraaj has a chance to claim both the NZB Filly of the Year & NZB Southern Filly of the Year Series winners

Her sire Iffraaj sired the NZB Filly of the Year Series winner Fix and Iffraaj will have a chance to take the Filly of the Year/Southern Filly of the Year double with his daughters with Kisses on track for the final leg of the Southern Series, the NZB Warstep Stakes in two weeks.

Stakes placed when running second to Twilight Granita (Iffraaj) in the Listed Soliloquy Stakes in the spring, Kisses was a class above on Saturday as she powered away from her rivals under jockey Darryl Bradley after being boxed in on the rail to an easy 1.75 length win.

“We will now press on to the Warstep Stakes,” commented co-trainer Chris Campin. “We thought she would struggle at the mile but she got it easily so she has earned a crack at the 2000 metres.

“She is a filly that has improved so much over the season and we may yet look at taking her to Brisbane but we will get through the Warstep first.”

The Steven Ramsay & Julia Ritchie trained Adolay (Fast ‘N’ Famous) produced a big effort to take second, earning 3 Series points, while the Lisa Latta trained If I Can I Can (Iffraaj) and Marmi (Lion Heart) from Brian Court’s stable dead heated for third, earning one point each.

Kisses was bred and is raced by Mark Fraser-Campin & Chris Campin’s Chequers Stud and is the 12th stakes winner for her sire Iffraaj, the fourth from his first New Zealand crop.

Standing at Haunui Farm, Iffraaj is having a good season with Fix winning the Filly of the Year Series with three Group 2 wins and two Group 1 placings and So Wotif taking the Group 3 Mr Tiz Trophy. Twilight Granita has also been successful at stakes level this season and finished second in Saturday’s Group 1 NZ Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes behind Xanadu, the daughter of Elusive City who also stood at Haunui Farm.

Kisses’ win also capped off a big seven days for Chequers Stud who stand the young stallion Battle Paint whose half-brother Lines of Battle won the Group 2 UAE Derby on Dubai World Cup night over Easter.

To view the points table for the Southern Filly of the Year Series, click here.

The final leg of New Zealand Bloodstock’s Southern Filly of the Year Series, the Listed NZB Warstep Stakes, will be held at Riccarton on 20 April.