O'Darci Three from Three

Now to Te Akau's second winner today - O'Darci -

Streets ahead of his rivals, O'Darci (4 g Darci Brahma - O'Sequita, by O'Reilly) made it a hat-trick of wins, from only three career starts, with a facile victory in the Marley Benchmark 75 1400 metres on Nov. 12 at Awapuni.

Having resumed in quite devastating fashion to win the Benchmark 65 1400 metres by 3 ½ lengths on Oct. 24 at Hastings, O'Darci emulated the performance up in grade to score by 4 ¼ lengths after utilizing barrier one to secure a perfect trip near the pace. He was doing pace work approaching the home turn before jockey Matt Cameron angled him clear at the 300 metres and he charged away to stop the clock at 1:22.6 for the 1400 metres.

An imposing individual in the flesh, O'Darci is certainly measuring up to his impressive stature.

“Gee, he's impressive this horse,” said trainer Jason Bridgman. “He's like a Calm Harbour; he's a serious, serious horse the way he opens up on them. He's gone up two grades and been more impressive each time and managed to put them away in fifty yards.

“He is still pretty green and has a lot to learn, but the natural ingredients are well above average,” said Bridgman. “I think we will just keep working him through the grades, to hone his skills, and he's not ready to be thrown into the bigger races until he's learned better racing habits.

“But, he improves with each run and will continue to do so with racing. We will tinker a little with his gear in an attempt to correct any wayward tendencies, but other than that he looks a very exciting prospect.

“Within the handicaps, if he continues to progress the right way then a race like the Thorndon Mile (Gr. 1, 1600m) [Jan. 25 at Trentham] could be on the radar and he seems the right profile horse for it.

Trained by the late Noel Eales, whose 1352 wins put him fifth on the list of most career wins in New Zealand, Calm Harbour recorded victory in the Thorndon Mile amongst his 16 wins.

Bred by Carol Marshall and Nessie Paykel, O'Darci is raced by them along with Margaret Morris, and Bob Morris.

His half-brother Captain Kurt (Volksraad) finished second to Darci Brahma (Danehill) in the 2005 Two Thousand Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m), producing a 10:3-5-2 record, and his grand-dam, Sequita (Sovereign Edition), was a stakes winning mare in a career of ten victories from thirty starts over 1200 - 2000 metres. Strikingly obvious in the form of these two horses was their consistency and having won three from three O'Darci has started in the right vein to emulate.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

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