Oaks Winner Secures Australian Black Type

Group One-winning Karaka graduate Pulchritudinous (NZ) (Wrote) added valuable Australian black type to her pedigree page with an impressive performance in the A$200,000 Group Three Fillies & Mares Mile (1600m) at Doomben on Saturday.

Pulchritudinous was a $32,500 purchase by Chad Ormsby’s Riverrock Farm in Book 2 of Karaka 2022, then failed to meet her $50,000 reserve at the Ready to Run Sale. She has now had 11 starts for four wins, a placing and A$523,185 in stakes.

Ormsby trained Pulchritudinous through a New Zealand campaign as a three-year-old, which culminated in victories in the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Group Two Lowland Stakes (2000m). She was subsequently bought by Yulong Investments, who have become major players on the Australian scene in recent seasons with a stellar line-up of horses headed by the likes of Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) and Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Lass).

Pulchritudinous finished fifth in the Group One Australasian Oaks (2000m) in Adelaide last April in her first start for new trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, but she performed below her best in her first two races as a four-year-old.

Saturday was a very different story as Pulchritudinous overcame an energy-sapping wide run to emerge from the pack and stake her claim at the home turn. Half a dozen mares lined up across the track to fight out the finish in the last 100 metres, but it was Pulchritudinous who found the most and prevailed by a long neck.

“She a lovely mare,” Bott said. “We’re very fortunate to have her in the yard.

“Obviously she was very talented in New Zealand through her three-year-old career, but it has taken a bit longer to get her into a bit of form and used to the conditions over here.

“We’re thankful that Yulong are more than happy to be patient with her, and she has come back in good shape. A nice first-up run there and it opens a few options for her going forward.

“We’d like to give her a couple of runs up here and she’ll thrive in the conditions. They suit her well and she’s very lightly raced.

“I want to see her getting up in trip and she’ll keep improving. I think today’s performance was going to determine which way she’d go. Whether this lifts our sights a bit more, we’ll try and think about the residual value for Yulong and see if we can add to that going forward. Importantly she is back in good shape today.

“Her trial coming into this was the best we’d seen since her arrival, so it’s very encouraging.”