Together - Second of Three Winners

The second winning leg of Te Akau's treble on Saturday was the Waikato Stud mare Together ...

A mare with a champion in her family, Together (4 m Ocean Park - More to Love, by Danasinga) is also showing an X factor.

In training for Waikato Stud, Together showed signs of plenty more to come when winning the Maiden 1300 metres on 12 December at Hastings, and stepped up immediately with a win in the $22,500 The Meat Company Matamata Rating 65 1400 metres to register her second victory from four starts.

“We've been very happy with her home,” said Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards.

“Her win had been good at Hastings and a big thank you to the team at Waikato Stud. They've been really patient with her. We had a bit of a hold up with her in the spring, but glad to see she didn't go to the stallion and let's hope we can crack on from here.”

Settled nicely by rider Opie Bosson three back on the outer, standing the leader five lengths at the 600m, Together was forced to make her run wide into the home straight, still four lengths astern at the 300m but produced big late strides to get up on the line.

“I thought Autumn Flash might have taken us a little bit further into the race and Opie had to get off his back and make a run, but we've had a reputation on her for awhile, has a lovely pedigree, and she can quicken,” Richards said.

“She's a big mare that has a few issues that we need to manage, so we may give her a break now and let the summer tracks roll through, and set her for the autumn. But, we'll see how she does in the next couple of days and I'll have a talk to Mark (Chittick) and his team. We're really looking forward the future with her.

A couple of races before the track upgraded to Dead4, Together ran the 1400 metres in 1:23.9, last 600m in 34.1 (quick on the day) and paid $2.50 & $1.30 on the NZ TAB tote.

“She really closed off nicely, those last few strides,” Bosson said.

“They had her off the bit when they quickened up turning in, but she balanced up really well. I thought Autumn Flash would have taken me right into it, but he was under a bit of pressure and I had to come out and make the run by myself. I didn't have to punish her, either, and she did it pretty much under her own steam.”

Bred and owned by Waikato Stud, she is from the lightly tried but talented Danasinga mare More to Love. Her grand-dam, Flying Floozie (Pompeii Court), made a huge name for herself as the dam of world-class galloper Starcraft (Soviet Star), a five time Group One winner that claimed titles of Champion 3YO in Australia, Champion Sprinter in New Zealand, and Champion Miler in Europe.

“She's from a wonderful family, although it's been a couple of years since the last good horse,” said Mark Chittick. “But, we have a lot of the family and great families always come back and that's the reason we kept her. She's a good, strong filly and hopefully she can go on as a racehorse.

“She's required a patient approach, but the whole family, to be fair, has been four (years old) before they get going. So, we didn't have any expectations early on because we know the family well and been dealing with it for quarter of a century, and she's typical of it.

“Jamie is doing a great job in his first season as the sole trainer at Te Akau, and I like dealing with him,” Chittick added.

“It's really nice for us to reciprocate business and success back the other way, because David (Ellis) is a big supporter of ours at the yearling sales and at the most recent Ready to Run Sale, so we have a number of horses in training with Te Akau and it's very professionally run by Jamie and his whole team. It's great to have continud success with them.”

Together was strapped by Mason Stephens.

Photo credit - www.raceimages.co.nz