Saturday Double - Grp 3 Honours My Lips Are Sealed

Having a terrific season, My Lips Are Sealed (4 m Ace High – Tellmeaboutit, by Tavistock) dominantly won the $120,000 Rydges Wellington Airport Phar Lap Trophy (Gr. 3, 1600m) on Saturday at Trentham. 

Runner-up in the Group 3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m) last December at Trentham, and a dual winner earlier this season, My Lips Are Sealed took great form to the Listed Matamata Cup (1600m) on 20 December at Matamata, when running home solidly for fifth, and her prospects were enhanced by some give in the ground.

A noted performer on rain-affected going, her grand-dam What Can I Say (Khozaam) was impressive in eight victories which included the Group 2 Warwick Farm Stakes (1400m). In turn, she became an incredible producer of 10 individual winners, notching 29 wins, including six stakes' wins, and over $1.5 million in prize money.

Ridden by Samantha Spratt, the leading stakes' winning jockey (9) this season in New Zealand, My Lips Are Sealed slotted into a lovely spot, tracked wider into the straight, and once clear she powered up to win going clear by two lengths.

“We managed to get a beautiful position, cruised into it, thought we were coming out but then had to go back in, and to her credit she’s done really well,” Spratt said. 

“She skipped through the track conditions and did everything right, it was perfect.”

On Soft7 footing, My Lips Are Sealed ran 1600 metres in 1:37.8 and paid $5.60 & $1.80 on the NZ TAB tote. 

Stable-mate Talisker (Embellish) also ran a top race for third on going not to his liking. He capped a hat-trick of wins with a terrific effort for second in the Group 1 NZ 2000 Guineas (1600m) and was named South Island Champion Three-Year-Old last season. 

“It was a lovely ride of Sam Spratt’s and a really good effort by the mare,” said Mark Walker, who trains with Sam Bergerson.

“The owners have been patient while we have been nurturing her along and she’s still got it all ahead of her. I think she’ll mature more and still has plenty of upside.

“She’s obviously better with some cut in the ground and has a good turn of foot when presented with the right conditions.”

On course, Bergerson said: “It’s really good to get a black type win with her, after she was beaten a lip here in the Eulogy. She really likes it down here at Trentham.

“The sting out of the ground suits, she got in with a light weight (53kg) and she was perfectly placed in the handicap.

“She’s had a bit of racing recently, so we may give her a short freshen-up, but we’ll get her home and see how she does.”

The first sales representative of dual Group One winner Ace High to be sold at Karaka, My Lips Are Sealed was purchased as a yearling by David Ellis CNZM for $160,000 at the Karaka 2022 Book 1 Sale, from the draft of Rich Hill Stud, and is owned by Te Akau Not A Word Racing Partnership (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM). 

Inspecting yearlings on the sales grounds on Saturday at the Gold Coast, ahead of the Magic Millions' sale on 7 – 13 January, Ellis said: “We took a break to watch the race and I’m really thrilled for the mare and her owners to win that Group Three race.

“She’ got a really good group of owners, including All Blacks former and current in Sean Fitzpatrick and Anton Lienert-Brown, and she’s a mare that has been given time by Mark and Sam to mature and that showed in the way she rounded the race off.

“She developing into a pretty good racehorse and I think she can continue to improve.”

Ellis added: “We’ve inspected about 100 horses so far today and it is a fabulous catalogue, a lot of very nice horses here.”

My Lips Are Sealed is by Ace High, a son of Champion Sire and sire of sires High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells), out of a mare by dual Group One winning stallion Tavistock (Montjeu), who had a great turn of foot, and sire of Hong Kong Horse of the Year Werther and seven Derby winners.

Ace High won the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) and Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m), and while a majority of his first crop winners last season were over 1200m and 1400m, he included a Group 1 NZ 1000 Guineas (1600m) and Group 2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies Classic (2000m) winner and has sired winners to 2200 metres. 

The family also includes a speed influence of Babylon Berlin (All Too Hard), who finished second to Te Akau trained Champion Two-Year-Old Sword of State (Snitzel) in the Group 3 King’s Plate (1200m), and subsequently won three Group Three races over 1200 metres and finished runner-up three times at Group One level. 

My Lips Are Sealed was strapped by Kendyll Lee. 

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz