Group One Victory For Juice

Saturday, 10 April 2010 04:30

The 17-1 odds returned by Juice (4 B. M. Bertolini – Call Minder, by Christmas Tree) to win the $200,000 Group One New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) for fillies and mares under weight-for-age conditions at Te Aroha on Saturday spoke volumes for the quality of the field rather than anything else.

Inform with a first, second and third respectively at her last three starts, as well as having won a listed race at her only previous course attempt, Juice had been a listed winner as a two-year-old when winning the New Zealand Bloodstock Stakes at Avondale, won the group two Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings before her second to Daffodil in the 1000 Guineas and finished fourth in the NZ Derby at Ellerslie.

But although she remained shunned in the betting market, the performance by Juice in the hands of rider Hayden Tinsley confirmed her class and provided owners Graeme and Jack Kissick with a huge thrill, as well as giving veterinarian Jim Marks his first group one victory as a breeder.

Marks raced Call Minder, the dam of Juice, and she excelled winning seven times for trainers Vanessa and Wayne Hillis.

The family extends back to top producers Dash and Tang, which appealed to Graeme Kissick when he asked trainer John Wheeler to have a look at her as a yearling at the sales.

Wheeler was able to procure Juice for only $20,000 from the 2007 New Bloodstock Carnival Sale from the draft of Seaton Park and she has repaid in kind with six victories for earnings of $452,925.

Wheeler was unable to be on course, with his daughter Kylie, a fulltime stable employee, deputizing and soaking up the group one glory.

Wheeler had said after Juice had won at Te Aroha last May, “Jack Kissick is a Taranaki identity and played 50 or may have been even 100 games of rugby for Taranaki. He’s a champion bloke and everyone in Taranaki knows him. Both him and his son Graeme are extremely humble people.”

There to witness the occasion with her partner Graeme Kissick, Robyn said the win would be a huge tonic for Jack Kissick (in his eighties), who was unwell back in New Plymouth.

She said, “We weren’t really expecting it. She was a roughie and sweated up quite badly.”

Having notched more than 1000 wins in the saddle, Tinsley gave Juice a perfect trip sixth on the outer, presenting her at the ideal moment in the straight to claim Culminate and Obsession, and record his fifteenth group one victory.

Second placed Culminate stuck to her task in sterling fashion after being taken on in the mid-stages by Ruud Van Slaats, who trailed the field of thirteen at the line.

Three-year-old filly Obsession continued her solid recent form which suggests she is going to be a force in fillies and mares races for some time.

The margins were three quarters of a length, by three quarters of a length, with the mile covered in a sizzling 1:34.19.

Graeme Kissick, a builder in New Plymouth, said, “This is awesome, a great feeling and quite unbelievable, really. She didn’t look pretty before the race when she was sweating up.”

Tinsley said, “I got a beautiful run. She settled nice and although I peeled out a little bit on the home turn I didn’t want to have her stop and I got a roll on before we got held up. She was fit. She didn’t look the winner – sweating up, but she’d done the mileage with three runs over 2000 metres which helped her stay. She’s always been a good horse – group one placed.”

The two mares from the stable of Lee Freedman over from Australia for the race; the winner of the corresponding race last year Dane Julia finished eighth, while Emblem Of Liberty was sixth.