Juvenile filly Abbakiss gave Bryce Newman plenty to look forward to with a professional victory in the Johnson Brothers (1000m) at Tauherenikau on Sunday.
A compact field of five assembled for the juvenile contest, with Te Akau Racing's trial winner Carsolio heavily-backed to salute on debut and closed a $1.20 favourite, ahead of Abbakiss at $6.90. The filly was a stride slow at the jump, but quickly strode up to take the inside running, while Carsolio was posted three-wide to the home turn.
Abbakiss straightened with an advantage on Carsolio, and despite the colt clearly heading her at the 100m, she came firing back through on the rail for Kavish Chowdhoory and won by a long neck, with Hello My Dear a further five lengths adrift in third.
The victory came at Abbakiss' second start, after finishing third behind Cool Aza Rene at Otaki in mid-October. Newman, based at Bulls, was delighted with her performance.
"She went really well today, Kavish rode her super and has ridden her in most of her work," he said.
"She only had the one trial, so she was still quite green at Otaki, but Kavish said she was brilliant today, she behaved and did everything right.
"She's a beautiful type of filly, she's got a bit of scope and length to her which is encouraging. I don't think she's an out-and-out two-year-old, so that's quite exciting going forward."
A daughter of Microphone, Abbakiss was purchased by Raumai Bloodstock for $60,000 out of Carlaw Park's draft at the 2024 Karaka Yearling Sales. Out of a Dubawi mare Arabian Gift, Abbakiss is a full-sister to Cantatrice, a flashing debut winner on the Cambridge Synthetic in September for Te Akau Racing.
"Michelle and I picked her out at the sales, we just liked her and she's a really gorgeous looking filly. It's nice when you make a decision and a plan works out," Newman said.
"She looks like a real athlete, which will influence our decisions going forward. We think she's going to be a lovely three-year-old, she's got so much leg underneath her so we're not going to make any plans at this stage.
"We'll sit on the fence for the next couple of weeks, we may possibly make a plan on going north, but that's not the be all and end all. We'll put her first, we want some longevity out of her as well.
"It's all very well if you've got lots and lots of them, but we've only got a couple of two-year-olds, so we are just really happy to have one up and going early."
For a large ownership syndicate, Abbakiss has earned just shy of $18,000 in two career starts, with plenty of the owners on-course to enjoy her success on Sunday.
"There were quite a few of the owners there, I always say if the horse is making you get up in the grandstand and yell, it's going well and doing a good job, whether they win or run a place," Newman said.
"It was great, and a few of them appreciate that it's quite special to have a two-year-old up and running too, that's not always that easy and not many of them do it."
