Let’s bring it on

It’s clear that Sunline Vase (Gr 3, 1400m) winner Tajana (Darci Brahma) is for real. Her form at two was more than promising but in her two starts this season she has proved best of the fillies and maybe the best three-year-old at this point of the season.
Although she performed fairly on top of the ground as a juvenile, her win on a heavy Ruakaka track (normally the best winter track in the country) was the only question surrounding Saturday’s Vase which was run on a Good 4 surface.
Similar to her Northland Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) victory, she settled towards the rear and was giving the leaders a decent start with 600m to run. Accelerating from the 600m she tacked onto the pack but soon after straightening still had all but one of the field to pass.
Again similar to Ruakaka, she drove into top gear but this time steamed down the centre of the course and was in front inside the 100m. She then had to dig deep to hold out Lollapalooza (El Roca) who matched her stride for stride, just a nose in advance of another very good filly. Tajana’s record now stands at three wins in six starts. The first two home had the race to themselves which again underlined Lollapalooza’s form from Ellerslie’s September 6th Gold Trail Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
Both fillies are likely headed for Riccarton and the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) but we can only hope that they clash again before that. For racing’s sake, let’s hope so and so does Tajana’s co-trainer Shaune Ritchie: “Isn’t it great to have a couple of top-class fillies going head to head like that. It is good for racing so let’s bring it on some more.”
Tajana’s racing pattern augers well for Riccarton. She won’t be bothered by the extra 200m. Later in the season, 2000 metres should be within her scope too plus there is the prospect of a New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) which moves from Trentham in March to Ellerslie in February.
Darci Brahma (Danehill) has sired two Oaks winners, namely Gust Of Wind, winner of the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and New Zealand Oaks victress Artistic.
Tajana’s dam is by July Cup (Gr 1, 6f) winner Sahkee’s Secret whose damsire Secreto (Northern Dancer) was successful in the Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f). Sahkee’s Secret’s maternal grandsire Majestic Prince (Raise A Native) was injured yet ran second in the Belmont Stakes (Gr 1, 12f), his only defeat in ten starts which included the Kentucky Derby, (Gr 1, 10f). On that, Tajana has every chance of seeing out the Oaks distance, especially against her peers.
Her dam Sleek Secret (Sakkee’s Secret) scored five wins and is one of seven winners from Brisbane winner Miss Smugg (Volksraad). Miss Smugg’s half-sister Spin ‘n Grin (Spinning World) took out Ellerslie’s Eight Carat Classic (Gr 2, 1600m). Her half-brother Mr Smug (Spectacular Love) was a Listed winner of seven races. Their dam, Smile (Sackford) ranks as a three-quarter blood sister to Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner A Little Kiss (Sackford).

Future mating?
Dick Karreman, Rick Williams and The Oaks Stud had a memorable 2024-25 season with Savaglee (Savabeel) and their fortunes have continued into this spring. Anyone in racing will tell you that such success is rare.
Savaglee was purchased as a stallion prospect and one might imagine that a mating between Savalee and Tejana is a distinct possibility some years down the track. In the meantime, there is the prospect of further racetrack action but such a match is something to look forward to. Maybe the 2030 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale?
Three trips, four starts, two stakes
When Ears Back (Jakkalberry) reversed the trend for the second time and crossed Cook Strait from the south to north back in May she was successful in Wanganui’s AGC Training Centre Stakes (Listed, 1600m) in two starts and her maiden stakes win.
Her trainer, Rangiora-based John Blackadder, has found the formula and repeated the dose on Saturday when the mare scored her most important win in taking out Trentham’s Metric Mile (Gr 3, 1600m). She sat outside the lead until the 600 metres then forged into the lead before the last corner. In a gutsy display she dared the field to run her down yet held off all challenges.
The 7YO broke her maiden at start four and scored a treble in early 2023 yet her greatest successes have been in the North Island and her career includes nine wins with earnings in excess of $340,000. “This is probably the biggest thrill of my life, apart from family,” said Blackadder. “I’m just absolutely ecstatic to be here and to win this race.”
Although Ears Back’s dam Makesmewonder (Grass Wonder) won in New Zealand, most of her immediate family are Japan-based except for her half-sister Reliability (Kurofune), dam of Hobart Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) winner Pretty Punk (Rebel Raider). When Ears Back retires she will be a welcome addition to any breeding barn.
No promo
We are into the last week of the first month of the 2025 breeding season and normally, spring stakes results can have some effect on late stallion bookings. Not so this past weekend, at least not in New Zealand.
Jackkalberry (Storming Home), sire of Ears Back is dead. Darci Brahma (Danehill), sire of Tajana, is retired from stud duties. Vadamos (Monsun), sire of Bill Ritchie Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m) winner With Your Blessing, no longer shuttles to New Zealand. Interestingly, With Your Blessing is from a Darci Brahma mare. Breeders who have yet to book their mares will just have to wait until next weekend for inspiration.
With Your Blessing has certainly taken his time to strike his best form and took six starts to break his maiden, at Kensington as a three-year-old. In the meantime he has recorded wins at the main Randwick track (now four times) with his six-year-old season proving his most productive. The seven-year-old placed in three Group races leading into Saturday’s qualifier for the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) but the Ritchie is his first stakes success, won with an intelligent ride by Alysha Collett who took advantage of the gelding’s propensity to lead.
Collett allowed him to stride to the lead from the jump but cuddled him up past the 800 metres and was still sitting quietly from the 400 metres to the 300 metres where she asked for a bit more. A couple of shakes and the response saw a lead of more than a length then it was just a matter of where was the post but they had enough to hold on for win seven at start 33 for earnings exceeding $788,000.
Collett was full of praise: “He loves pinging the barriers, getting to the front, and as long as you sit there and cuddle him and tell him he’s good, he’ll give you a really good effort.”
With Your Blessing is a graduate of the 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and was sold via Wentwood Grange’s draft, fetching $70,000. He is one of two winners from five-times winner Super Trouper (Darci Brahma), a sister to Malaysian stakes performer Lim’s Dashing (Darci Brahma). Super Trouper is one of eight winners from Trouville (Hurricane Sky), herself a half-sister to two French Listed winners. The best performer in the family is Prix Lupin (Gr 1, 2100m) winner Persepolis (Kalamoun) who is a half-brother to With Your Blessing’s great granddam.
Fine family
Sepals (Calyx), winner of the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday, joins the growing Group 1 club that descends from the imported mare Head Of The River (Shirley Heights). That number grew to seven with Sepals’ super win as he became the fifth Group 1 winner to represent this family since the 2020-21 season. It is a wonderful line.
Head Of The River had two foals in Australia before she was imported to New Zealand in 1993, an inspired decision which has resulted in one the highest quality producing families in the New Zealand Stud Book.
The year following her import she foaled Ellerslie Group juvenile, Good Faith (Straight Strike), also the fourth dam of Sepals.
Head Of The River’s 1998 foal was Spring (O’Reilly), representing the first crop of O’Reilly (Last Tycoon). Spring produced three-times Group 1 winner Daffodil (No Excuse Needed) and a sister to Daffodil, named Posy (No Excuse Needed), the dam of another three-time Group 1 winner Atishu (Savabeel).
Head Of The River’s 2000 foal was Heads Or Tails (Tale Of The Cat) whose daughter Toss Up (Zabeel) is the dam of New Zealand 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Aegon (Sacred Falls).
In 2005 Head Of The River saved her best for last when foaling Chorus (Danasinga) whose daughters Symphonic (O’Reilly) and Chorus (O’Reilly) produced the top New Zealand three-year-olds of the last two seasons, namely full relations-in-blood Orchestral (Savabeel) and Savaglee (Savabeel). They are by the same sire from sisters.
Courtesy of Arion Pedigrees’ database, 188 runners representing five generations descendant from Head Of the River include 135 winners (71.4 per cent) of 398 races. In a little more than 30 years the family has produced 14 stakes winners (seven Group 1 winners) and a further ten stakes placed winners.