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Steve Anderton will roll the dice one more time this preparation with his quality mare The Solitaire.
The Wingatui trainer saddled the O’Reilly mare for a brave victory in Saturday’s Listed Carrier Arms Hotel Riverton Cup, in which her barn mate The Glitzy One finished fourth.
“I’ll run them both in the Great Autumn at Christchurch, depending on the track, and The Solitaire will then go out for a holiday and come back for next season,” Anderton said.
“The Glitzy One has won that race for the last two years and this will be her last race. She’s not a big mare and she’s got a lot of value at stud.”
A winner at Pukekohe and placed in the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes during a recent northern campaign, The Solitaire was partnered at Riverton by Daniel Bothamley and they got home by a head from the lightweight Commanding Oak.
“It was terrific and I was confident in that she was the class horse of the field,” Anderton said. “She hadn’t raced for six weeks, but she does go well fresh.”
The longshot King Prawn finished third ahead of The Glitzy One, who had finished runner-up to Nashville in the Gr.3 Canterbury Gold Cup at her previous appearance.
“Shankar (Muniandy) said she hit a bit of a flat spot today and it was quite a tough run she had last week,” Anderton said.
Meanwhile, a younger half-sister to the recently retired Arietta got her career off to the best possible start for trainers John and Karen Parsons earlier in the day.
Edenwold filly Tempting Place made a successful debut in the Natural Destiny Clearview Park Excellency Stakes to provide jockey Lynsey Satherley with the opening leg of a winning double.
She later combined with stablemate Keynote to claim the closing event.