Spectacular Spring Classic Win for William Wallace (NZ)

Ready to Run Sale graduate William Wallace (NZ) (Darci Brahma) produced a remarkable performance to claim his first stakes win in Saturday’s $50,000 Listed Christchurch Casino Spring Classic (2000m) at Riccarton.

William Wallace was a $40,000 purchase at Karaka and is trained by Adrian Bull, who shares ownership with his wife Robyn. The highly talented gelding has now had 34 starts for seven wins, six placings and $174,392 in stakes – more than four times his purchase price.

Ridden by Sarah Macnab, William Wallace dropped out to last in the early stages of Saturday’s race. But Macnab made her move down the side of the track, swooping right around the outside of the field and rushing to the lead at the top of the home straight.

Plenty of challengers tried to run him down through the last 400 metres, but William Wallace fought them all off to score a superb half-neck victory over the favourite Communique (NZ) (Redwood).

“That’s my first stakes win, so I’m stoked,” Macnab told NZ Racing Desk. “I’m even more pleased to get it on this horse, because he’s one of my absolute faves.

“He normally just flops out of the gate and you have to let him do his own thing, but today he was keen and when I started going around them, he just took off. I didn’t think I’d be in front like that, but he is just so tough and he wouldn’t let anything get past him.”

William Wallace was bred by Sir Peter Vela and the late Philip Vela, and he was passed in at the 2014 Premier Sale with a $60,000 reserve. He returned to Karaka later that year for the Ready to Run Sale, where he was bought by Makaraka Stables for $40,000.

“I had to take a second look on the turn,” Bull said on Saturday. “He’s the one doing the chasing most times, but there he was in front. I don’t think he’s ever been in front like that – it takes him the whole straight to get wound up. But he’s pretty tough and he fought on really strongly today.”

The 2020 Ready to Run Sale is less than a month away and will be held as a physical sale at Karaka on 18 and 19 November.