Benefactor bounced back into the winner’s circle at Woodville on Sunday with a strong victory in the Valley D’Vine Restaurant Waipukurau Cup (1600m).  

The daughter of Contributer is trained at Awapuni by Lisa Latta, who had been searching for ideal track conditions, which she struck at the meeting with an improving Heavy 8 surface in play. In the hands of Lily Sutherland, Benefactor flew the gates and settled in the box-seat third, while Shelbyrock’n took the pacemaking role at a strong tempo.

Benefactor began to loom up to the leader on the turn and hit the front early, showing plenty of fight to hold out a surging Tikemyson at the post by a head.

Latta was pleased with the performance, indicating a mile won’t be the end of her distance range going forward.

“She’s just been battling with tracks, they’ve either been too heavy, but her run at Waverley was a touch disappointing,” she said.

“I just think today, the track wasn’t heavy as it was upgraded, and she was looking for that touch better track.

“I think she’ll definitely get up over 2000m, she’s just taken a bit of time as some of the Contributer’s do. She tries really hard and is a good little galloper.”

The win came to the delight of the mare’s large group of owners, who took shares after Latta purchased her for $24,000 out of Curraghmore’s draft at the 2021 Karaka Yearling Sales. In her 25 starts, she has recorded four wins, four minor placings and $105,400 in stakes.

“She’s got a big ownership group, we didn’t pay a lot for her and syndicated her out to a big group so it’s good,” she said.

Benefactor was bred by Little Avondale Trust out of a O’Reilly mare Miss Bondi. The mare’s half-brother by Per Incanto, Aeroinvincible, has won two races in Hong Kong.