NZ Filly Proves Lightning Can Strike Twice

For a second successive year a kiwi filly has won the Group 2 A$300,000 Racing.com Wakeful Stakes (2000m) with Thunder Lady (NZ) (Mastercraftsman) breaking her maiden on one of Australia�s biggest days of racing.

Thunder Lady (NZ) powers to victory in the Group 2 Racing.com Wakeful Stakes.

There was a sense of d�j� vu about Thunder Lady�s victory in the key lead up race to the Group 1 VRC Oaks. It was also the second successive year ex-pat kiwi trainer John Sargent has trained the winner following Kirramosa�s (NZ) (Alamosa) win last year.

Thunder Lady will be looking to emulate her stablemate once again as she heads towards the Group 1 VRC Oaks on Thursday.

�It was a fantastic win on Saturday,� commented Sargent. �She is bred to stay and we just had to get her up over that trip to prove it.

�She has pulled up well so she will go to the Oaks now. She will have a change of rider with Blake Shinn suspended so Tommy Berry will go on.�

Entering Saturday�s race as a maiden, Thunder Lady had been placed in three of her four runs this campaign � all in Sydney. The daughter of Mastercraftsman started her career in New Zealand, having two starts as a two-year-old for Sargent before he moved his stable to Sydney.

In form rider Blake Shinn was aboard Thunder Lady and let her settle near the tail of the field early over the 2000m. Entering the straight Thunder Lady only had two runners behind her.

Shinn skilfully picked a path between runners and at the 200m was on the back of race-favourite Abduction (Street Cry). Thunder Lady showed her superior staying prowess as she powered past Abduction and raced to victory by three-quarters-of-a-length in the colours of Hong Kong based owner Oliver Wong.

�At her previous start we rode her handy but decided to ride her cold on Saturday and if she was running on we thought she would be right for the Oaks. She just outstayed them in the end, there was good speed on and it suited her perfectly.

�I buy stayers in New Zealand all the time and it just proves that they are as good as the Europeans, especially at an earlier age.�

Thunder Lady was one of three winners at Flemington on Saturday with Preferment (NZ) (Zabeel) triumphant in the Group 1 Victoria Derby for Chris Waller. The ex-pat kiwi trainer also trained promising three-year-old Kermadec (NZ) (Teofilo) to victory in the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes.

Bred by Plowman Bloodstock Ltd, Thunder Lady is out of Thunder Gulch mare Thunderchine and is the fifth winner out of the mare. Thunderchine is a full-sister to Group 1 Australasian Oaks winner Tully Thunder (Thunder Gulch) being out of Group 2 winner Fleur de Chine (Centaine), who is also the dam of stakes winner Sufficient (Zabeel).

Bryce and Ginger Tankard of Waikato Bloodstock purchased Thunder Lady for NZ$75,000 at the 2013 Karaka Select Sale from Mapperley Stud. She has already accumulated A$190,000 in earnings.

Thunder Lady is by young sire Mastercraftsman whose oldest progeny are only three-year-olds. Mastercraftsman has 10 two-year-olds catalogued in New Zealand Bloodstock�s Ready to Run Sale this month.