Filly shows she’s no pushover

Australian-bound filly No Pushover lived up to her name at Riccarton where she boosted her future value with a black type success.

The bargain buy made the jump from a maiden victory last month to a clear-cut win in Saturday’s Listed NZB Insurance Stakes.

“It’s a really nice story and she was bought under a year ago at an NZB Sale for just $3000,” trainer Shaune Ritchie said.

He was asked by syndication company principal Kirk Devers, who operates under the KRD Racing & Thoroughbreds Racing banner, to have a look at the filly and Ritchie gave her a tick of approval.

“She had a parrot mouth, but apart from that she was very correct and now she’s a stakes winner,” he said.

Ritchie also has the Group placed Megawatt for KRD Racing, although both fillies are on limited time in New Zealand.

“I’ll be advising Kirk to send them over to my brother Craig in Sydney for next season – there’s limited prize-money here for four-year-olds,” he said.

“Megawatt is out spelling and this filly may back up in next Saturday’s Warstep Stakes. I’m not certain she’ll get 2000 metres.

“There isn’t a lot left so we may as well roll the dice as long as she comes through this race well. She was beautifully ridden by Masa Tanaka as well.”

Tanaka was originally to have ridden the Awapuni filly Zbeauty, but she went sore in the lead-up and he made the most of his opportunity aboard No Pushover.

He gave her a dream run in the trail and they were into the clear at the right time to dash clear for a two length defeat of Goodsav with Deedee Panache completing a North Island trifecta.