TAB Karaka Millions Contender for Rookie Sire Super Seth

Exciting Waikato Stud stallion Super Seth has burst into the frame for the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) with a breathtaking performance by his first-crop son Poetic Champion (NZ) at Hawera on Saturday.

A five-length winner of his only trial on September 5, Poetic Champion lined up for his raceday debut in Saturday’s $25,000 MJ Concept Construction Ltd & Evergreen Plumbing 2YO (950m) and did something even more spectacular.

After sitting on the outside of the front-running Cognoscenti (Castelvecchio), Poetic Champion took command at the top of the straight and charged clear to open up a winning margin of six and a quarter lengths.

“He’s a really nice horse,” jockey Craig Grylls said. “He jumped well to sit outside the leader and I gave him a bit of a squeeze and he absolutely took off.”

Passed in with an $80,000 reserve in Book 1 of Karaka 2023, Poetic Champion is raced by his breeder, Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock Pty Ltd, who also owned Super Seth.

With $14,375 in stakes from Saturday’s win, Poetic Champion now sits in equal first place on the order of entry for the TAB Karaka Millions 2YO, sharing that spot with fellow recent winners Bellatrix Star (NZ) (Star Witness) and About Last Night (NZ) (Capitalist). That prize-money is likely to already be enough to earn a place in the starting gates on TAB Karaka Millions night at Ellerslie on January 27.

“We know where we’re going, so we can just sit on him now,” said Mark Hills, stable representative for Cambridge trainer Tony Pike.

“He’s a real beauty and he knew what he was here for. He showed a turn of foot in his trial and his jump-out win was good. He’s an exciting horse.”

Poetic Champion became the first winner for first-season sire Super Seth, who stands at Waikato Stud for a service fee of $35,000. Himself a five-time winner on the racetrack including the Group One Caulfield Guineas (1600m), Super Seth had yearlings sell for up to $625,000 at Karaka earlier this year.

Super Seth is also set to feature in the upcoming Ready to Run Sale at Karaka on November 22 and 23. The catalogue features 12 of his progeny, including Lot 298, who is a half-sister to the high-class Group One galloper Kovalica (NZ) (Ocean Park).

Meanwhile, the prospective TAB Karaka Millions 2YO field will continue to take shape with the running of the next two-year-old race on the New Zealand calendar, which is a $40,000 race over 900 metres at Trentham on October 21.

Photo : Race Images