Gold Fever Out to Emulate Sister

The Informant reports:

While the connections of many of the country's top two-year-olds have their eyes on a million-dollar prize at Ellerslie, the plan is different for impressive debut winner Gold Fever who lines up in tomorrow's (Saturday) Mills Reef Winery 2YO Premier at Awapuni.

The Savabeel filly, who began her career with a dominant victory by three and a half lengths at Te Rapa on November 27, is New Zealand-bred and was offered at a yearling sale by Waikato Stud, but it wasn't at Karaka.

“She was co-bred by Waikato Stud and they offered her as a yearling, but it was actually over on the Gold Coast,” co-trainer Jamie Richards said. “David (Ellis, Te Akau Racing principal) picked her up over there for A$110,000.

“So she won't be eligible for the Karaka Million, but there'll be plenty of other black-type races that we can set her for later in the season. The first of those is likely to be the Matamata Breeders' Stakes, which her half-sister Gold Rush won this year. It would be really nice to do the same thing with this filly. She'll probably have a little freshen-up after this race and we'll aim her towards that.”

Richards admits to some surprise over how easily Gold Fever dealt to her rivals at Te Rapa three weeks ago.

“She hadn't shown us a huge amount in her trials, although they had been on rain-affected ground,” he said. “But she showed up on raceday and produced a very good performance on debut. She didn't have things her way in the run, but she really put a hole in them late in the race. It was very good to see and pretty exciting.

“She's come through that well. The three-week gap has suited her perfectly. We don't like to race our babies too often. We've just kept her ticking over. She produced a really nice piece of work yesterday (Tuesday) morning with Hall Of Fame, she kept up with him really well and looked very good. Everything's all go for Saturday.”

Gold Fever has drawn gate five in tomorrow's seven-horse field and will be ridden by Cameron Lammas, who was also in the saddle for the debut win.

Two runners in tomorrow's field have already picked up black-type placings. Dreams Of Platinum ran third in the Listed Wellesley Stakes in October, then finished sixth in the Gr. 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes two weeks ago. Nothin' On Me was third in the Listed Murdoch Newell Stakes at Pukekohe last month in her only start to date.