Dual Group One winner Savvy Coup will remain in Australia after failing to fire in a two-start campaign in Melbourne and will join the Sydney stable of Chris Waller.
Prepared by Michael and Matthew Pitman to win last season’s Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and the Gr.1 Livamol Classic (2040m) in October, Savvy Coup was well-held in both the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) and Gr.2 Matriarch Stakes (2000m).
The daughter of Savabeel has gone for a freshen-up and will be aimed at targets in the autumn.
“I can understand what they're doing,” Michael Pitman said of the decision by stalwart owners Ray Coupland and Jim Bruford.
“I've told them I'm disappointed but it’s very hard to place a mare like her in New Zealand.
“If she ran in the set weights and penalties races, because she's won two Group One races she'll be near enough to the top weight.
“We've had input into the decision making process, they haven't left us out of it. I fully understand and going forward I think it’s the logical thing for them to do with her.”
“For every door that shuts another one opens and hopefully one of the young horses we have got steps up to the mark.
“We’ve got a really nice Savabeel that Jim Bruford and I own in partnership, so we’re looking forward.”
Pitman was also relieved to be out of hospital after follow-up surgery from his recent bowel cancer operation and said he hoped to make an appearance at Riccarton on New Zealand Cup Day.
"I’ve been having trouble with my pelvis filling up with fluid and I'm on antibiotics three times a day,” he said.
“I'm not in the peak of condition but at least I'm not lying in a hospital bed.”
