Stylish Field For 4th Leg Of Southern Filly Series
10 April 2003
The New Zealand Bloodstock Leasing Stakes (Listed, 1600m) has a field of 14 and includes the two fillies who fought out the finish for the New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance Stakes two weeks ago, Royal Show (Deputy Governor x Bluebird Dancer) and Irish Belle (O'Reilly x Society Bay).
On soft track conditions the Michael Pitman & Chris Harris trained Royal Show took the honours right on the line, a nose from the Mark Walker trained, Irish Belle.
Cat Shmea (Felix the Cat x Ingresea) and Tonic (Blues Traveller x Sent To War), who ran third & fourth respectively behind Royal Show and Irish Belle will also line up on Saturday.
Royal Show now leads the Southern Filly of the Year points table with Tonic and Flying Coup (Tuscany Flyer x Blue Blarney) all on 7 points.
Irish Belle and the Peter and Dawn Williams trained Cat Shmea both have three points in the Southern Filly of the Year Series and a win on Saturday by either filly could put them in the lead.
The 2002-03 New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series has been evenly contested so far with different fillies taking the wins in each of the first three races. With the New Zealand Bloodstock Leasing Stakes being the second to last leg in this season's Series the race for the title is still very much open.
The points allocated to each race in the series are 7 points for first, 3 points for second and 1 point for third.
The 2002-2003 New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series can be followed by viewing our website www.nzb.co.nz where the points table is updated after the running of each race.