Risque Completes BIg Week For Te Akau Stable

Darci Brahma filly Risque delivered a powerful late surge to take out the NZ 1000 Guineas at Riccarton, becoming the seventh G1 winner for her leading sire and completing a remarkable week for her co-trainers Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards.

Seven days after they combined with leading jockey Matt Cameron to land the NZ 2000 Guineas with the brilliant Pentire colt Xtravagant the trio completed the classic double when Risque ran Strada Cavallo (Alamosa) to score by one and a quarter lengths.

Risque is raced by Dick Karreman’s The Oaks Stud, whose general manager and racing manager Rick Williams sent the filly to Te Akau Racing’s Matamata stable run by Autridge and Richards.

Karreman also raced multiple G1 winner Seachange, winner of the 2005 NZ Thousand Guineas.

“We won this race ten years ago with Seachange and we’ve had a few placings since so it’s terrific, a big thrill for Dick and Darci Brahma,” Williams said.

Risque was sent south early and she was a winner at Ashburton in the spring. She continued to progress and finished runner-up in the Guineas Trial (1400m) at Riccarton before she was successful in the Listed Armadillo Stakes last month.

Risque (Darci Brahma x So Explicit by Straight Strike) now boasts three wins from six starts with prize money of NZ$233,725.

She is the seventh G1 winner for Danehill’s multiple G1-winning son Darci Brahma, who stands at The Oaks Stud for a fee of NZ$20,000.

Risque is one of Darci Brahma’s three G1 winners in 2015, the others being Gust Of Wind and Julinsky Prince.

The filly is the best-performed of four winners from as many foals to race out of the stakes-placed mare So Explicit, a half-sister to the dam of Listed winner Tycoon Tango (Last Tycoon).

Tycoon Tango is the dam of the stakes placeged Tycoon’s Heart (Show A Heart) from the family of multiple G3 winner Purpose (Vain), the dam of the multiple stakes winner Lady Purpose (Sir Tristram).

• SORIANO, a Savabeel stalwart of the Graeme and Debbie Rogerson stable, struck a winning blow in the G2 Tauranga Stakes on Saturday to justify her delayed retirement to stud.

Soriano, who has won two G1 races, is out of Call Me Lily (Just a Dancer) and the Rogersons are keen to give the six-year-old the chance to advance her record at that level in coming weeks.

“She was served by Pins but she was empty so we sent her back and they are going to test her next week to see if she’s in foal,” Rogerson said.

“I might look at the Captain Cook Stakes and there’s the Zabeel Classic, but we’ll see how she comes through this race first.”

• SATURDAY’s G3 New Zealand Cup winner Jimmy Mac is the fifth stakes winner for the Zabeel sire Zed and one of the best bargains racing in NZ.

Jimmy Mac’s owners are continuing to count the cash from an initial $500 investment that has swollen to more than $235,000 prizemoney earned by the seven-year-old.

Jimmy Mac is prepared by Gene Andrew, who shares in the gelding’s ownership with his brother Leon, their cousin Marise Richardson, her partner Peter McGillicuddy, and Cheryl White.

Leon Andrew borrowed his mother Vivienne’s mare Go Annie Go (Racing Is Fun) to send to Zed at a cheap $500 service fee.

He will now go after the G2 Wellington Cup and the G1 Auckland Cup where wins will earn him a $1 million bonus or at least $250,000 that is on offer for the winner of the NZ Cup any one of those two races.