Ultimate Habit (NZ) Delivers Lowland Double for Patterson and Grylls

Standout filly Leica Lucy (NZ) (Derryn) won last year’s Group Two Jennian Homes Lowland Stakes (2100m) for Robbie Patterson and Craig Grylls, and the same trainer-jockey combination took out the ninth leg of the NZB Filly of the Year Series again at Trentham on Saturday.

The latest black-type star for Patterson and Grylls is emerging talent Ultimate Habit (NZ) (Embellish), who recorded the first win of her career in the $175,000 feature. 

A promising fourth and second in her first two starts in November and December, Ultimate Habit joined the NZB Filly of the Year Series in last month’s Group Three Desert Gold Stakes (1600m), where she was doing her best work late when finishing sixth and 2.3 lengths from the winner.

The step up to 2100 metres in Saturday’s Lowland Stakes, along with a solid pace set-up, allowed Ultimate Habit to show what she’s capable of.

Grylls settled Ultimate Habit well back in fifth-last as Iffigive (NZ) (Contributer) surged forward to take the lead down the back straight and strung the field right out.

Ultimate Habit started to warm up and gain ground coming up to the home turn, and Grylls angled her to the outside at the top of the straight to launch her run. Ultimate Habit powered home, swallowing up Ariadne (NZ) (Almanzor) in the last 100 metres and going clear to win by a length.

“She raced a little bit keen still, but she cruised into it at the right time,” Grylls said. “She is still pretty new and green to it, she wanted to lay in and still did a couple of things wrong, but she has done it pretty comfortably in the end.

“I was really happy to secure the ride. Robbie filled me with confidence, he said he had a good one and she has proved that right.”

Ultimate Habit became the fifth stakes winner for Cambridge Stud stallion Embellish (NZ). Bred and part-owned by Isabel Roddick, Ultimate Habit is closely related to the 2023-24 NZB Filly of the Year Molly Bloom (NZ) (Ace High) and also comes from the family of Group One stars Rough Habit (NZ) (Roughcast) and Addictive Habit (NZ) (Colombia).

From a four-start career, Ultimate Habit has now recorded a win and a second and has earned $107,880.

Ultimate Habit earned 8 points in the NZB Filly of the Year Series from her Lowland Stakes win, which puts her straight into equal third place alongside Ohope Wins (NZ) (Ocean Park), Tellum (NZ) (Ocean Park) and Tajana (NZ) (Darci Brahma). The equal leaders are Well Written (Written Tycoon) and Lollapalooza (NZ) (El Roca) with 20 points each, but they will play no further part in the series.

Two legs of the series remain – the $275,000 Group Two David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m) at Te Rapa next Saturday, and the $1m Group One Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Ellerslie on February 21.

The Oaks is worth a potentially decisive 12 points to the winner, and Patterson is keen to push on in that direction with Ultimate Habit.

“We are definitely going to go to the Oaks on that,” the New Plymouth trainer said. “It is going to be a lot trickier going the other way around at Ellerslie, but she is such a laid-back filly. She’ll just go home after this and eat everything.

“I wasn’t disappointed with her run the other day, where she got stuck on the inside on a tricky track. I knew she was a good filly. She was unlucky in both of her first two runs.

“Gryllsy rode her beautifully today. He got her in a good rhythm, and then the horse showed a good turn of foot.”

The Lowland Stakes placegetters were Ariadne and Clara Bow (NZ) (Ocean Park), who added their names to the NZB Filly of the Year Series leaderboard with 4 and 2 points respectively.