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Shezhardtocatch has limited racing opportunities ahead of her, but she showed at Pukekohe Park that she’s in the right order to take advantage of them.
In foal to Showcasing, she returned from a brief break on Saturday to down a smart field of sprinters in the Listed Haunui Farm Counties Bowl.
“We had a go at the Foxbridge Plate and after she ran sixth we freshened her and got her in foal,” said Allan Peard, who prepares the Elusive City mare with Bruce Wallace at Byerley Park.Shezhardtocatch came back to finish fourth at Ruakaka in September and a trial outing at Ellerslie topped off her preparation.
“She’s a tough mare and she trialled really well so we were quietly confident that she was going to run well,” Peard said.Shezhardtocatch settled off the pace before she unwound powerfully in the hands of veteran jockey Grant Cooksley to get in the deciding stride on the post.
“That’s Cookie for you – he never panics,” Peard said. “She’s certainly up to the best sprinters on her day and she’ll definitely go to the Concorde and maybe the Newmarket before the Railway.”Shezhardtocatch won the Gr.3 Concorde Handicap as a three-year-old before she also added the Gr.3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes to her record.
Promising mare Snowdrop gave an excellent account of herself in her open class debut to go under by only a short head with a nose back to Perfect Fit, who gave the winner and runner-up five and six kilos respectively.In a desperate finish, there was only a head back to Fire Jet and Red Striker was a close-up sixth.