Riccarton Double - Purple Power

Recording the 130th win this season for premiership leading trainers Mark Walker & Sam Bergerson, Purple Prose (3 g Embellish – Lady Masako, by Iffraaj) broke through in the $22,000 Maiden 1600 metres on 9 July at Riccarton.

Denied room when fifth in the Maiden 1400 metres on 29 May, Purple Prose sustained a big effort for second after being caught wide from the outside gate (12) in the Maiden 1400 metres on 11 June, both on the poly-track at Riccarton. Again paired up with Brazilian jockey Bruno Queiroz, he looked to have top three crendentials and the market supported that thinking. 

From barrier eight, Purple Prose was patiently ridden beyond midfield, smothered in 10th and six lengths astern at the 600m, but he quickened immediately when angling clear in the straight (400m) and had his rivals covered with a well-timed run down the outside. 

In the race sponsored by Speight’s Summer Ultra On Tap, Purple Prose ran 1600 metres in 1:37.3 and dropped late in betting from an earlier $2.70 fixed odds quote to pay $1.70 & $1.30 on the NZ TAB tote.

“It was a good effort to win from that far back and a lovely ride of Bruno’s,” Walker said.

“Hunter Durrant, our assistant trainer, has got the team flying down South, and the winners we get in the South Island from our training base at Riccarton is a big part of our overall success.

“Bruno Queiroz, with his experience beforehand in Singapore and Brazil, rides the poly tracks so well and has a real confidence about him on the synthetic surfaces. 

“Purple Prose has the breeding to get over more distance, being a half-brother to our good staying mare Elegant Lady, and he’ll keep improving with more time and maturity.”

Purple Prose winning in Canterbury was fitting, as his dam Lady Masako was purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM at the 2015 South Island, paying $23,000, from the draft of Pear Tree Farm (Waimate).

Retained for breeding by the Te Akau Cherry Blossom Syndicate, Lady Masako was not disgraced on debut in a Maiden 2YO 1300 metres at Hastings, in a good form race won by subsequent Listed Castletown Stakes runner-up Honey Rider (Pins), but she was retired after two starts and Purple Prose is her third individual winner.

Owned by the Te Akau Cherry Blossom Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM), Purple Prose is a half-brother to stable-mate Elegant Lady, the winner of four races 1900m – 2200m and also twice stakes' placed, and she is raced by Te Akau Cherry Blossom 2019 Racing Partnership (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM). 

Purple Prose is the third foal from Iffraaj (Zafonic) mare Lady Masako, out of five-time winner Lady Sakura (Jungle Pocket), the family of second top Two-Year-Old Lady Bay (Kingdom Bay), dam of Group Two Grosvenor Championship Stakes winner Let’s Cruise (Zabeel).

“We know the family well and it’s great to see it producing another winner,” Ellis said.

“We trained Lady Bay, who won four in a row as a two-year-old, three of them stakes' races, and Mark (Walker) trained her daughter Let’s Cruise (Zabeel), who was a really good filly that won the Championship Stakes at Ellerslie, and we sold her for good money to America.”

Purple Prose has a Sir Tristram bloodline cross in his sire line and Nureyev cross on his dam side. 

Incredibly Iffraaj (Zafonic) has now produced 530 winners as a broodmare sire, including nearly 50 individual stakes' winners, most notably Te Akau trained dual New Zealand Horse of the Year Melody Belle (Commands) whose 14 Group One wins surpassed the previous record set by Sunline (Desert Sun).