While the NZ suffix was dominating the Flemington card on Saturday, Stockman made sure there was plenty of Kiwi flavour at Rosehill when winning the Gr.3 Sky High Stakes (2000m).
The widest on the track turning for home, Stockman was able to rally and wear down his rivals and kicked on for a half-length victory over Mount Popa, with a further 2-1/4 lengths back to Great House in third.
The Heavy9 track conditions suited the wet track specialist down to the ground and trainer Joe Pride was rapt with the result.
“The last time he won on a Good track was in a maiden at Goulburn, so he is clearly a gun wet-tracker,” Pride said.
“At this time of year he is going to get plenty of those (Heavy tracks), so it is the right time of year to have him up.”
While the son of Tavistock tailed the field home in the Gr.1 Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Randwick last month, Pride wasn’t disheartened, knowing his charge needed the run.
“He needed the run the other day. He went in seven weeks between runs into the weight-for-age race and he was spot on for today,” he said.
The Warwick Farm trainer now has lofty ambitions with his gelding over further ground, eyeing a tilt at the Gr.1 Sydney Cup (3200m)
“I would love to see him run the two miles and I think he will,” Pride said.
“A Tavistock out of a Zabeel mare suggests that he will get that kind of trip.
“He just gets better as he gets older. He is an exciting prospect, he has been around for a little while now.
“It is great to have a horse like him up at this time of year. We still haven’t seen the best of him and he can really stay.”
Stockman was the third Group Three winner on Saturday for former Cambridge Stud stallion Tavistock, with his two-year-old filly Ruthless Dame successful down the Flemington straight in the Gr.3 Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (1200m) before Flying Mascot saluted in the Gr.3 Matron Stakes (1600m), also at the premier Melbourne course.
Stockman was purchased out of Cambridge Stud’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft by Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds and John Thompson for $175,000. – NZ Racing Desk