Ekstreme: Latest Win a Turning Point

Taranaki trained four-year-old mare Ekstreme had already displayed rare ability to transition from three-year-old filly to WFA racing with wins earlier this season in the Group Two Cal Isuzu Stakes and Group One Captain Cook stakes, both at 1600m, but last Saturday weeks facile win in the Group Two Travis Stakes at 2000m could well turn out to be a more significant success as far as the rest of this season and beyond is concerned.

While I wasn't as confident as trainer Bryce Revell who answered äfter 200m" when asked post race at what stage did he feel she had Saturday's feature won, I can't recall the last time I saw a horse travelling so well in a major race.

Wet track form even in stakes races can often be dubious but despite her long odds there was a rare ease about Ekstreme's win in last seasons Lowland Stakes at 2100m on a heavy track that showed her to be well above average and certainly most adept on wet ground.

While her subsequent form has been a little patchy she has never struck the same race conditions until her latest Te Rapa performance. One though must be careful not to define her as a wet tracker, in fact nothing could be more inappropriate for she has also shown rare ability on top of the ground and at distances arguably short of her optimum trip, winning the Captain Cook and the Travis at Te Rapa breaking 1.34 for 1600m.

Stepping up to somewhere near her best trip and striking a decent wet track saw her start a very warm favourite for the Travis Stakes but for the initiated there were still question marks about her ability to relax in the slower tempo of distance racing, a trait that had raised itself in last years Queensland Oaks and was again noticeable in the Zabeel Classic this season. Apparently a notorious puller in trackwork, Ekstreme had a habit that needed breaking if she was to be competitive with the very best at 2000m plus and while she needs to be able to demonstrate this consistently her latest Te Rapa performance is clearly encouraging.

Judging by the noise on course each time Ekstreme wins her owners The Waimea Racing Syndicate sound like they are getting an immense thrill out of racing the high class mare but another very interested party is Hawkes Bay breeder Alan Jackson who purchased Ekstreme's yearling half brother by Mr Nancho and their dam Cashcade privately just before last year's Captain Cook Stakes; Jackson's astute transaction has potential to be even more sweeter if the private reputation of Ekstreme's yet unraced two-year-old half brother Maradona can come to fruition - owned by the same syndicate which raced Tavistock, his trainer Andrew Campbell makes no secret how highly he rates the Mr Nancho colt.

I saw Maradona's yearling full brother (Cashcades third foal) and the second part of Alan Jackson's package purchase at Greg and Jo Griffin's operation on the old Okawa Stud property just before Xmas and while a little plain in appearance -not unlike his half sister - there s a rawboned masculinity about the tough natured gelding who Hastings trainer Patrick Campbell will be entrusted to fine tune when he enters his stable shortly.

As her Captain Cook victory showed Ekstreme is one of the country's leading milers however she indicates from the glimpses we have had of her on a wet track and in the right frame of mind that she is capable of taking an even more significant prize at 2000m with conditions to suit.

Volksraad: Fine Season Continues

Last Sunday's Goodwood Handicap win by Velocitea gave the stallion Volksraad the unique record of having sired group one winners in Australia at 1100, 1200 and 1400m. Dantelah from Volksraad's first crop took the Oakleigh Plate in 1999 and Orange County the Sir Rupert Stakes in 2008.

Volksraad has been taken for granted a little throughout most of his career. At last count he had 54 individual stakewinners and Sunday's success was his 13th individual group one winner.

On track for his eighth NZ Sires Premiership there's a school of opinion that Volksraad's inferior record in Australia stops him from being ranked with the great NZ stallions of his generation but how inferior is that record when you consider it alongside his contemporaries most of whom sire middle distance performers. Volksraad's bread and butter are his sprinter/milers and to compete against their Australian counterparts means taking on arguably the best speed horses in the world in their own backyard.

Granted all three group ones are handicaps but it's still a significant achievement in it's own right and I imagine one would have to go back to the days of Sovereign Edition or possibly even Pakistan 11 to find it's equal.

Pentire: Success as a Broodmare Sire

Both two-year-old events at the two Saturday meetings in NZ were taken out by horses from Pentire mares.

The Bachelor Duke colt Gamble who took the race at Te Rapa is the second foal of the two win mare Penny Hill while the Trentham winner L'Armour is a Towkay filly from the one win mare Penthouse Blue- that mares first foal.

Penny Hill's whose two wins were at 1600m and 2175m ran in the Warstep and Wellington Stakes of her three-year-old season. Penthouse Blue's only success in her 16 start career came over 2100m at Otaki.

The dam of Penthouse Blue is the Shirley Heights mare Juliette Heights - represented by a cracking Don Eduardo colt at Karaka earlier this year - giving L'Armour 3 strains of Mill Reef. I've noticed increasing numbers of Mill Reef duplications in local pedigrees of late.

Pentire's only representation at this weeks National Broodmare Sale at Karaka looks sure to be of interest to pedigree buffs. Placed at 3 this season in Australia the filly Stars is from the famed Mrs Moss family and has a duplication of Mill Reef with her dam by Shirley Heights son Darshaan.