Exciting Excitonic

Given a lovely trip in the trail by Opie Bosson, Excitonic (3 g Savabeel - Bint Piavonic, by Encosta De Lago) delivered emphatically in the $10,000 Maiden 1400 metres on 15 January at Rotorua.

Having run the fastest last 600m
(34.6) when closing solidly for second in the Maiden 1200 metres on 27 December
at New Plymouth, the step in distance appeared ideal and once angled clear for
the short run home he quickened appreciably to win by two lengths.

“He was very impressive, today,”
Bosson said. “He jumped, put himself in the race quite easily and did
everything right. Once I angled him out and balanced him up, he hit the line
really well. I was impressed with him.

“I've ridden him in track work
and at the trials and he's the type of horse that has kept improving all the
time. The more experience he gets the more he should continue to improve for
it.”

On footing that upgraded during
the day from Dead5 to Dead4, Excitonic ran the 1400 metres in 1:24.6, last 600m
in 34.8, and stayed firm in betting to return $3.70 & $1.60 on the NZ TAB
tote. The race was sponsored by Have Your Function at Arawa Park.

“It was a very good win by a
promising horse and we've always held him in high regard,” said trainer Jamie
Richards, who leads the premiership with 69 wins.

“He ran well with no luck on
debut at Taupo, and he was a bit stiff getting home strongly at New Plymouth.
Opie gave him an excellent ride, with cover, got into the race at the right time
and certainly finished off well.

“He's a horse that has a good
future. We'd like to think he was up to some better races in the medium to
long-term and it was great to get a win on the board for his owners.”

Purchased by Te Akau principal
David Ellis for $230,000 from the draft of Brighthill Farm at the 2018 New
Zealand Bloodstock Book1 Karaka Sale, he is owned by the Te Akau Excitonic
Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM).

“He's a really nice horse and the
way he won suggests there is a lot more to come,” said Ellis, who was
inspecting yearlings ahead of the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sales Series
(Jan. 26 - 31) at Karaka.

“It's been another fantastic
growing season, one of the best I've ever seen in the Waikato and it's
reflecting in the quality of the yearlings we're inspecting.

“We've had tremendous success
with the progeny of Savabeel and, obviously, he is our champion sire. But, he
instils a lot of quality into his progeny, they have a real turn of foot, and
he's hard to go past in many respects. And, he's starting to emerge as a very
good broodmare sire too.

“We won the Rich Hill Mile (Gr. 2, 1600m) with Prise De Fer and Savy Yong Blonk ran second in the City of Auckland Cup (Gr. 3, 2400m) on New Year's Day at Ellerslie, trained Embellish to win a 2000 Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) and he's now standing at Cambridge Stud. Probabeel gave us a hat-trick in the Karaka Million (Restricted Listed, 1200m) last year, and Sword of Osman is a Group One winner, as was Hall of Fame. They're just very good horses that he sires and we're lucky to be able to buy them.”

By five-time
Champion Sire Savabeel (Zabeel), the dam of Excitonic, Bint Piavonic, is the
daughter of a terrific nine-time race winner Piavonic (Scenic), who defeated
Sunline (Desert Sun) and Falvelon (Alannon) in the Manikato Stakes (Gr. 1,
1200m).

Dam
sire Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) is a Champion broodmare sire, setting an
Australian record last year for progeny earnings in a single season. His
influence in the pedigree is distinguished, along with that of breed shaping
sire Northern Dancer.

Excitonic was strapped by Raj Rahsheed.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

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