Former
champion European Miler Rip Van Winkle (IRE) was represented by his first
Australasian winner at Tauherenikau on Thursday.
The Windsor Park shuttle stallion has been a hit in the Northern Hemisphere
with his son Dick Whittington successful in the Group I Curragh Phoenix Stakes
and his daughter I Am Beautiful the winner of the Group III Grangecon Stud
Stakes.
The Galileo stallion is now off the mark in New Zealand with Magic Dancer dominant
on debut to continue trainers Graeme and Debbie Rogerson's early dominance of this
season's two-year-old racing.
"She's a really nice filly and the reasons we brought her down was that it was
1000 metres and a (NZB Insurance) Pearl Series race," Debbie Rogerson.
Magic Dancer was a $90,000 NZB Select Sale purchase from the Monovale Farm draft
and is a half-sister to Group I placed Manten and stakes-placed Perkins being
the sixth winner from stakes-winning Desert Sun mare Dazzling Belle.