Positivity (NZ) Scores First Black Type in Group Three Sunline Vase Win

Although Molly Bloom (NZ) (Ace High) was absent from Saturday’s $150,000 Group Three McKee Family Sunline Vase (2100m) at Ellerslie, the race confirmed the Group One-winning filly as the winner of the 2023-24 New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series.

The winner of Saturday’s Sunline Vase was the emerging filly Positivity (NZ) (Almanzor), who scored her first black type win and joined the NZB Filly of the Year Series table with her first 6 points of the series.

The Andrew Forsman-trained filly had finished fourth on debut at Matamata in December, then won a maiden race at Tauranga before striking bad luck when seventh in the Group Three Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) and eighth in the Fillies’ Classic.

Saturday was her day, pressing forward to sit outside the leader down the back straight before hitting the front at the home turn. Fellow Almanzor filly Qali Al Farrasha (NZ) loomed ominously on her outside in the straight and clearly got her head in front, but Positivity fought back bravely and won by a neck.

“We got caught wide early, so I decided to go forward,” winning jockey Masa Hashizume said. “I’d wanted to take a sit, but I had to roll forward. When they came up to her in the straight, she switched on and it was a very tough win.”

Positivity has now won two of her five starts and $102,285 in stakes for owner Ben Kwok, who bought her for $160,000 from Book 1 of Karaka 2022. She will now be aimed at the $500,000 New Zealand Oaks in two weeks’ time.

“That’s just so good,” Forsman’s stable representative Gemma Hewetson said. “She’s just got better every time she’s gone to the races.

“She hasn’t had a lot of luck in her last two starts and this was a good, tough win. Andrew has always held a big opinion of her and she is a beautiful filly.”

The next leg of the NZB Filly of the Year Series is the Group Two Lowland Stakes (2000m), which was postponed from Hastings last Wednesday and will now be run at Taupo on Friday, eight days out from the series’ grand finale in the New Zealand Oaks.