Prise De Fer Group 3 Perfection

A well judged ride by Opie Bosson enabled Prise De Fer (4 g Savabeel - Foiled, by Snippets) to snare his fifth consecutive victory on Saturday in the $80,000 Powerworx Taranaki Cup (Gr. 3, 1800m) at New Plymouth.

The rightful favourite following a comprehensive two-length victory in the Rich Hill Mile (Gr. 2, 1600m) on 1 January at Ellerslie, Prise De Fer climbed in weight from 53-kilos to carry 57 but it mattered little.

Fresh from winning both one-million dollar races last Saturday at Ellerslie, aboard stable-mates Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel) in the Karaka Million (Restricted Listed, 1200m) - giving both Bosson and Te Akau four successive wins in the great race - and Probabeel (Savabeel) in the Karaka Million 3YO Classic (Restricted Listed, 1600m), he was again at his calculated best.

As he did when winning the Telegraph (Gr. 1, 1200m) recently aboard stable-mate Avantage (Fastnet Rock), Bosson was able to negate a wide draw (11) and position one off the rail in eighth. Happy to sit pat as the tempo increased to the 600m, Prise De Fer received a lovely drag into contention around the home turn and always looked the winner as he extended his raking stride.

“He's a promising horse and it takes a fairly good animal to put five together like that, and he's certainly getting through the grades really nicely,” said Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards. 

Stable-mate Scott Base (Dalghar), who came from a long way back when finishing third in the Anniversary Handicap (Gr. 3, 1600m) on 11 January at Trentham, produced a similar effort for fourth.

With six wins and placed three times from 12 starts for owners in the Te Akau En Garde Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), Prise De Fer was purchased by David Ellis for $100,000, from the draft of Trelawney Stud, at the 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale. 

Adding to the Savabeel success train at Te Akau, the principal, David Ellis, recently purchased a further 10 by the five-time Champion Sire during the New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sales at Karaka, and reported them to be selling like hot cakes.

“The best advertising we can do is having these horses winning races,” Ellis said. “That's what every owner wants and that's what they're doing. 

“We bought 10 Savabeel yearlings at Karaka and we're flat-stick selling them, and I can't remember us ever selling horses so quickly. It's going brilliantly and Karyn and the admin team are doing a great job. We're all working huge hours. 

“Obviously, the sales were only this week so we've still got shares available in some beautiful horses including some of the Savabeel's. All together, we bought 39 yearlings in January and we're getting a lot of interest from people around the world that want to race a horse with Te Akau. It's very satisfying.

“It was an extremely good effort by Prise De Fer. He's a horse with a bright future and another gem of a ride from Opie. Jamie (Richards) always said he was still very immature as a three-year-old, but he's getting there now and he's a Group One quality horse.”

Echoing the sentiments, Richards said the next start for Prise De Fer could be the $200,000 Haunui Farm WFA Group One Classic (Gr. 1, 1600m) on 22 February at Otaki. 

“He wasn't the easiest horse to sell, but his owners will be very pleased with themselves now,” Ellis said. “We bought him from Brent and Cherry Taylor at Trelawney and he was bred by huge supporters of Te Akau, Raffles Farm. They have a lot of horses with us in New Zealand and Singapore. 

“That was Jamie's 10^thstakes winner this season in New Zealand - 11 in total with Melody Bell's Group 1 in Australia. He leads the premiership with 76 wins, nearly $3 million in prize money, to go with $2 million won in Australia, and I think he's trained nearly 20 percent of the total stakes' winners that Savabeel has had, which is quite incredible.

“Savabeel's an amazing sire. Bred in New Zealand, stands at Waikato Stud and we do a lot of business with Mark and Pippa Chittick. They're great people and big supporters of Te Akau. 

“Opie (Bosson) is riding in great form and we also have Troy Harris and Michael McNab who are both doing a super job for as well, as are all the staff, and you just don't get these results unless everyone in the team is working well.”

Prise De Fer was strapped by Kate Belsham.



Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz

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