OTI Racing’s Kazaru takes aim at juvenile Group 3
Trainer Phillip Stokes and OTI Racing are hoping lightning can strike twice as bargain two-year-old Kazaru (Embellish) continues building her career in Saturday’s South Australian Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) at Morphettville Parks.
Plucked out of Karaka Book 2 by OTI’s New Zealand agent Phill Cataldo for just $27,500, Kazaru is a half-sister to the stayer who earned $1 million for Stokes and OTI, Daqiansweet Junior (Sweet Orange).
That now retired gelding took connections on a wonderful ride after being brought into the OTI fold from New Zealand as a late three-year-old. After his first three starts for Stokes, he won his next four in a row in Melbourne over the 2021-22 summer, before two runs later taking the Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m).
Daqiansweet Junior then placed third in the Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), before running sixth in that year’s Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m), backing up in the great race in 2023 to run fifth placing for his largest cheque of $230,000.
Little wonder OTI has backed up again to race Kazaru, bringing some of Daqiansweet Junior’s owners along for the ride.
Stokes is hopeful the filly will enjoy as much success as her older half-brother but, reporting no similarities to that gelding, he’d be content if she doesn’t evolve as such an out-and-out stayer.
“I hope she’s not a two-miler,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll be running out of options pretty quick. There’s not too many of them around.”
More realistically, Stokes believes Kazaru will be better suited around the 2000-metre mark, making races such as next autumn’s Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) a possible target.
She’s from the third crop of Cambridge Stud’s $5,000 (inc GST) stallion Embellish (Savabeel), who scored three wins from 1200 metres to 1600 metres, capped by the New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m). His sire Savabeel (Zabeel) was second in a VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) but had scored his most important wins in his previous two starts over shorter trips, taking Randwick’s Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
Victory on Saturday for Kazaru would bring Embellish a fifth stakes winner from 90 runners worldwide, and a second in Australia from 17, following on from Team Payne gelding Bold Soul. That four-year-old has already won an Adelaide Group 3, in last year’s Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), plus two Tasmanian Listed races.
Kazaru and Daqiansweet Junior come from an unsung female line, with their dam Paulette (Keeper) unraced after four unflattering barrier trials, second dam Jodhi (Crested Wave) also unraced, and third dam Tiger Lily (Sovereign Edition) unplaced.
The 15-year-old Paulette has had mixed results in the breeding barn, but what success she’s had has strongly indicated staying blood, including her first foal Our Craftsman winning over 3100 metres and 2100 metres.
Stokes and OTI also race Paulette’s three-year-old filly Lafont (Wrote), who debuted inauspiciously on Monday with a last of 11 on the Pakenham synthetic.
Kazaru has come to hand more quickly. While she goes into Saturday’s Group 3 as a two-start maiden, Stokes is pleased by her progress and warm on her chances for the Sires’, for which bookmakers have her as fourth elect at $8.50.
After debuting with a fair eighth over an unsuitable 1200 metres at Geelong, Kazaru hinted at her promise in earning black type when sticking on for a 1.12-length third, with blinkers added, in Morphettville’s Oaklands Plate (Listed, 1400m) on June 28, as a $31 chance.
The second horse that day, Ethereum Girl (Maurice) is again amongst the opposition this Saturday, as a $4 third-favourite, as is the colt Kazaru comfortably beat into fourth, Mostly For Show (Vadamos), who’s $9.50.
“I looked at her as a yearling, and thankfully [OTI boss] Terry Henderson said he’d buy her and give her to me to train,” Stokes told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She was very backward. I would never have envisaged her even running as a two-year-old, but here we are. She’s come along nicely and she’s been very straightforward.
“She’s going well and she’s trained on well from her last start, and I don’t believe it’s that much harder this week, so she has to be a chance.
“A mile would have been ideal with her pedigree. But we’ve tried to keep her as fresh as we can for this week. It was a good result running third last time, but hopefully we can go two better this time around.”
Kazaru has drawn barrier eight of ten and will be ridden by Lachy Neindorf, reuniting the jockey-trainer-syndicator combination that enjoyed a top-tier triumph at Morphettville in May in the South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) with Femminile (Dundeel).
Stokes hopes he might also be back in that race next autumn with Kazaru.
“I think we’ll have a break after this weekend and she can have the spring off and we’ll look to the autumn. Hopefully she’ll get stronger and get over a further trip,” he said.
“Oaks races in the autumn would probably be in mind for her, but a Derby would do, like we did with Femminile.”
Stokes said the Morphettville Parks inner circuit could be “tricky”, especially from a wide gate.
“It’s a funny sort of track. We’re drawn out a bit. It depends how it’s playing on the day,” he said. “If you get too far back on that track, sometimes you can’t run on, so there’s a few variables.
“We’ll need a bit of luck, but I’m sure Lachie should pull out a good ride. I think we’re a good each-way chance from that barrier.”
Stokes will be looking for more stakes success in Australia’s last two-year-old black-type race of the season to cap a strong campaign for his two-state stable.
Basing himself in Melbourne since 2019, he’s about to clinch his fourth premiership in his old hometown of Adelaide – a strong feat considering the stable has only around 25 horses in the city. With two Saturdays left, Stokes has 44 wins for a comfortable lead over Richard and Chantelle Jolly, on 34.5.
In Melbourne, where he prepares 50 horses out of Pakenham, Stokes sits 11th with 21 city victories, one behind 10th-placed Robbie Griffiths.
Stokes has 107 wins for the season including 11 stakes victories. That’s second only to his bumper 2020-21 performance which brought 149 wins and 13 black-type successes, highlighted by a personal best of two elite triumphs – Mr Quickie (Shamus Award) in Caulfield’s Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and Instant Celebrity (Not A Single Doubt) in the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
However, on prize-money, Stokes has already racked up his best season, with $7.8 million in the bank, up on last term’s $7.4 million and the $7.2 million of 20-21.
“It’s been a pretty good season for us,” he said. “A hundred-plus wins, and it looks like we’ll win the premiership in Adelaide, so our team there has done an amazing job there considering we’ve only for 25 horses there.
“We’re approaching $8 million in prize-money, which is pretty good for a stable our size. We’ve had numerous stakes winners, so it’s been OK, and I think we’ll be in for a better season next season.”