Rich Hill Stud graduates made their marks on the domestic and away fronts at the weekend with a trio of winners more than capable of adding black type honours to their records.
In the cases of She’s A Dealer and Shockletz, they will have opportunities next time out while Hyperbolic will continue her march through the grades before progressing to stronger company.
Ace High four-year-old She’s A Dealer won for the fourth time from seven appearances with her victory stroll over 1500m at Te Rapa and is unbeaten in two runs since she finished an unlucky fifth in the G1 Queensland Oaks.
She is trained by Roger James and Robert Wellwood for breeder Rich Hill, who race the daughter of two-time Group 1-winning Pentire mare Say No More with Mark Neill, Richard Kidd, Ian Hart and Peter Merton.
She’s A Dealer led early before settling in the trail for apprentice Sam McNab and took advantage of a rails run at the top of the straight to win untouched.
“I thought she was well placed, especially with the 3kg claim. She’s a class act, and I believe she’s a Group 1 mare in the making,” James said.
She will now bid to post an appropriate victory in the G2 Rich Hill Mile on New Year’s Day at Ellerslie where the G3 Aotearoa Classic on January 24 is another target race.
Shockletz was born and raised at Rich Hill for Lawrence Eales, who raced her G1 Melbourne Cup-winning sire Shocking and retained an interest in his stallion career.
The four-year-old is trained by Ciaron Maher and following her dominant victory over 2500m at Pakenham, now has six wins and two placings from 12 outings.
“She’s a talented mare with a good record and just needed the distance and the bigger track,” assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said.
The Listed Bagot Handicap at Flemington on New Year’s Eve now shapes as an option for the mare.
“We didn’t want to tax her too much. We’re very focused on the autumn and then the spring of next year,” Turnbull said.
Shockletz is a sister to the Group 3 placed stayer Horrifying, who has won on seven occasions.
Meanwhile, Hyperbolic was a smart winner over 1600m at Randwick where the daughter of Proisir completed back-to-back metropolitan victories.
“She’s going the right way. We’ve been patient, just waiting to get to this Saturday level, and it’s starting to reap rewards,” trainer Brad Widdup said.
“I don’t want to do anything silly just at the moment, I’ll just see if we can place her again in BenchMark company. She was only third-up, so I think we can keep going.”
Hyperbolic was ridden by Tommy Berry who guided the four-year-old to her fifth win from 13 attempts.
“It was a bit of a muddling run race, they ran along for the first furlong and a-half and really brought the speed out of it mid-race,” he said.
“That’s why I just put her into the three-wide line from the 600m and let her work through her gears. I knew the horse in front was going to be hard to run down and she stuck to her task.”
Bred by the Galbraith family and Mike Lewis, Hyperbolic is out of the Sir Percy mare Piazza and a three-quarter sister to G3 Bonecrusher Stakes winner and multiple Group 1 placegetter Riodini.
She was secured by Widdup for $240,000 out of Rich Hill’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale.
Rich Hill Stud Release
