Second Group 1 for Puccini

Recording another outstanding win was Puccini (NZ) (Encosta de Lago) notched his second Group 1 victory in the $200,000 Group 1 Harcourts Thorndon Mile (1600m) at Trentham yesterday.

Puccini (NZ) (inside) puts his head in front to win the Group 1 Harcourts Thorndon Mile. Photo courtesy of Trish Dunell.

Bred by Paul and Cushla Smithies of Monovale Farm, Puccini won his second Group 1 race following his victory in the Group 1 NZ Derby last season. Trained by Peter and Jacob McKay, this campaign has also seen him run third in the Group 2 Rich Hill Mile and second in the Group 1 Captain Cook Stakes.

Monovale Farm also bred and sold yesterday’s Group 3 Desert Gold Stakes winner Platinum Witness (NZ). Monovale Farm has three horses in catalogued in the Karaka Premier Sale which commences tomorrow.

“It was great for Paul and Cushla (Smithies), they have bred three individual Group 1 winners and also had Platinum Witness win yesterday which they also bred,” commented Peter McKay. “It is a good time for them with the Sales coming up and they have nice draft of yearlings going through so hopefully it will help to sell them.

“We will sit down with Paul and have a talk to run a couple of things past him. The thoughts are to go over and have a crack at the Australian Cup, that has been in the back of our minds but we wanted to win a Group 1 in New Zealand first.

“He might go to Otaki next month and then go to Melbourne after that. If we couldn’t win yesterday by riding him back we were considering going to Te Rapa and reverting back to some of his three-year-old tactics of jumping and leading. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do that, to be a good race you need to be able to take a sit and finish it off.”

New Zealand’s leading jockey Danielle Johnson rode Puccini jumping from barrier four. The son of Encosta de Lago raced behind mid-field before making ground as the field turned the corner for home pushing forward on the rail.

With over 200m to go, Johnson made the decision to pull out to side step Ringo (NZ) (Fastnet Rock) and was one off the rail with Puccini then powering through the final 200m to race to victory be a short head. Soriano (NZ) (Savabeel) showed an impressive turn of foot as he surged down the outside to claim second position and Mighty Solomon (NZ) (Darci Brahma) finished in third place.

“It was a great win,” said McKay. “It was nice to get a ride to suit him, we have been trying to teach him all season to relax knowing that if he relaxes he has a good finish on him. It proved that with a good ride on him that he has the turn of foot to finish it off.

“It was a really good field he was up against and there was a case for a lot of horses for the race. We knew he had the goods to win the race but everything still needed to go right for it to happen.”

The connections of Soriano lodged a protest after Puccini and drifted out over the concluding stages of the race. After deliberation, stipendiary stewards ruled the contact was too close to the post to have influenced the result and Puccini was declared the winner.

Yesterday’s victory was Puccini’s seventh stakes victory and now has total prizemoney of $961,763 for owners Monovoale Holdings Ltd.

The son of Encosta de Lago was purchased at the 2011 National Weanling Sale for $175,000 by NZB as Agent from Monovale Farm. Puccini was passed in at the 2012 Karaka Premier Yearling Sale.

Bred by Monovale Holdings, the four-year-old horse is out of Miss Opera (Paris Opera), winner of the Listed Castletown Stakes and he is half-brother to Champion Middle Distance Horse in NZ in 2006-07, Sir Slick (Volksraad).