Midweek Double - Paravane Sails Home

Adding to her residual value, Paravane (4 m Merchant Navy – In The Vanguard, by Encosta de Lago) recorded a stylish fresh-up victory in the $25,000 Diprose Miller Chartered Accountants Rating 65 1150 metres on 26 November at Te Aroha. 

Paravane is a half-sister to Te Akau purchased and trained Group One winner and Champion Two-Year-Old Sword Of State (Snitzel), now an exciting young sire standing at Cambridge Stud - he is already represented by Listed Magic Millions Debutante Stakes 1000m winner Torture, after his first crop yearlings sold up to A$540,000.

An easy fresh-up win over 1200 metres last season, Paravane remained held together in the straight when trialling on 23 October at Ellerslie, had weight relief to 54kg courtesy of stable apprentice Hayley Hassman (a3), and had shown the previous ability to prove competitive.

Sent forward from the outside gate to share the pace, Paravane quickened to a handy advantage inside the 300m and raced clear to win by three lengths.

“She got in nicely at the weights, with the claim, jumped and ran and she put them away easily,” Hassman said.

“They’re kicking off the home bend quite strongly today and she showed a nice turn of foot.

“Te Akau gives a lot to me and I try to put my effort in to match theirs. Sam (Bergerson) and Reece (Trumper) put the time in with me, watching replays, and it’s great to reward them with wins.” 

On Good3 footing, Paravane ran 1150 metres in 1:07.1, last 600m in 34.5, and paid $3.80 & $1.30 on the NZ TAB tote.

“It was a good win by Paravane and lovely ride of Hayley’s, who is really starting to look good on a horse,” said Mark Walker, training partner with Sam Bergerson.

“She’s an apprentice that is starting to come of age as a jockey, gaining confidence, is able to swap the stick over smoothly to the other hand and horses do run for her. 

“She’s becoming an increasingly valuable mare, Paravane, being a half-sister to Sword Of State, and every win adds to it. 

“Starting to mature now, she spelled really well at Te Akau Stud, where Dean (Lowcay) and the team that manage the horses had her looking terrific when she arrived back into the stables.

“It was a pretty convincing performance to win like she did and it suggests she can go on with it.”

Patiently handled by the trainers to win two of her four starts for owners in the Te Akau Rule The Waves Racing Partnership (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), Paravane was purchased by David Ellis CNZM for A$120,000 at the 2023 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, from the draft of Newgate Farm (where he also bought Sword Of State), and all eight horses he purchased at the sale have won.

The group is headed by Captured By Love (Written Tycoon) who has included a Group One, two Group Two, and two Group Three victories among her six wins. Also Group One winning colt Move To Strike (I Am Invincible), and Dream Of The Moon (All Too Hard), a stakes' winner who is Group Two and Three placed, while the eight have already recorded 22 wins between them.

On course, assistant trainer Reece Trumper said: “Good ground is certainly the key for Paravane, and she’s a half-sister to, hopefully, sensational young sire Sword Of State. So, she’s got the pedigree and the 1150 metres today certainly suited her.

“She’s not a filly with a lot to come and go on, so we trialled her four weeks ago and gave her plenty of time to get over that. We knew if she got a good deck (track) here today that she’d be very competitive.

“She’s a great young rider, Hayley. She’s there every morning at 3:45 a.m., mucking out boxes, and is a really hard worker, so she deserves all the wins she gets.”

While Sword Of State was the first foal from In the Vanguard, Paravane is the third foal from a very fast family. 

Her sire, Merchant Navy, a fast son of Champion Sire Fastnet Rock (Danehill), was a triple Group One winner over 1200 metres (twice in Aust., and Royal Ascot) in a career of seven wins from 10 starts. A Coolmore shuttle stallion, Merchant Navy commenced stud duties in 2018. 

Paravane carries a Danehill cross through the sire line of Merchant Navy and dam-line of In The Vanguard. 

At the time of purchasing Paravane, Ellis said: “Merchant Navy was a great racehorse, with a top pedigree, and we know the family has a motor.

“She’s a filly that has plenty of maturing to come, but we know how good her brother (Sword of State) was, with the potential to make an impact as a sire, and being able to buy this filly with her residual value in mind was a real bonus.”

Paravane was strapped by Megan Ross, foreman at the Main Barn.

Photo credit - Kenton Wright - www.raceimages.co.nz