Thy (NZ) Rolls to a Regal Win

The Waikato Stud owned Thy (NZ) cruised to an upset win in this weekend’s A$120,000 Listed Regal Roller Stakes (1200m) at an excellent day of racing at Caulfield that signalled the start of the spring season.

The daughter of O’Reilly was deemed an outside chance as her best form has previously been over a mile and further.  In serendipitous fashion however, she did win on the same date last season, fresh up over 1400m.   

Thy (NZ) winning the Listed Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield.

The five-year-old mare settled well back in the field for jockey Vlad Duric and when produced as the widest runner in the straight she displayed an electric turn of foot that saw her sweep past her opposition to score a one-length victory.

It was the second stakes victory for the Peter Moody trained mare after winning the Listed Aspirations Handicap (1600m) in Sydney last season along with a placing in the Group 1 Australian Oaks (2400m) as a three-year-old.

“It was a very good win, in the past I trained her to be a mile-and-a-half plus horse and learnt at the end of her last preparation that she can’t genuinely stay and I think trained as a sprinter-miler we saw what she can do on Saturday.

“It was a good quality field and her turn of foot to pick up and hit the line showed that she is more in the mile mould and I have no doubt we can build on her stakes record.

“We will pick our way through the carnival and try our hand at more black-type. There are a lot of options for her and I’m not going to tie myself down with one at this point,” commented Moody.

Offered at the 2010 Karaka Premier Sale, Thy was the second highest priced filly of the sale when knocked down to Waikato Stud for $600,000 from the draft of Phoenix Park.

“She was a smashing yearling and has continued on in the same vein as a mature mare,” said Moody.

Her sire O’Reilly has kicked off the new season as he finished the last, with Thy becoming the 68th takes winner for Waikato Stud’s resident stallion who took out all three sires’ awards at the New Zealand Racing Awards 2013.

She is the daughter of stakes winner Star Affair (Star Way), the winner of the Group 2 Travis Stakes, and Thy is a half-sister to dual stakes winner Solid Billing (Rock of Gibraltar) and multiple stakes placegetter Galileo’s Galaxy (Galileo).

She is a descendent of the Dennis brothers ‘The’ family that has produced several stakes winners such as The Jewel, Irish Chance, The Dimple and The Grin who all feature prominently in Thy’s pedigree.

Bred by Peters Equine Trust & Terry Archer, the valuable broodmare prospect is raced by Waikato Stud’s Gary Chittick and has accumulated $281,600 in stakes earnings from her four wins in her 13 start career.

The half-sister to Thy by High Chaparral has been nominated for the 2014 National Yearling Sale Series at Karaka by breeder Terry Archer through Janine Dunlop’s Phoenix Park consignment and is sure to be a highlight lot when catalogues are released in December.