Group 1 Target for Kolding (NZ) After Randwick Win

Karaka graduate Kolding (NZ) (Ocean Park) will be given a chance at Group 1 level after prevailing in an exciting finish to Saturday’s A$160,000 Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m) at Randwick.

The $170,000 Premier Sale purchase produced an irresistible surge down the outside in the home straight, catching Fierce Impact (Deep Impact) in the shadows of the finish line and scoring by a head.

“He is a very good horse,” jockey Glen Boss said. “He’s a quality individual with a real presence about him. As soon as you get over his neck, you think, ‘Gee, you have got some quality.’ It gives you a bit of confidence before you get to the start that you are on a really good horse.

“I was confident at the top of the straight that I was going to run really well, but when Nash Rawiller on Fierce Impact put three-quarters of a length on me really quick, I thought, ‘Oh, gee, that’s just too good.’ But, to his credit, he lifted when I asked him to. That’s a good sign heading towards the Epsom.”

The Group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) will be run at Randwick on October 5.

In the meantime, Kolding’s career record stands at 13 starts for six wins, four placings and A$451,000 in prize-money – more than two and a half times his purchase price.

"He's a really nice horse and it was good to see him fight strong that last 50, when it looked like he might have been beaten,” trainer Chris Waller said.

“He goes into the Epsom with a winnable weight, and there’s a sense of timing. It's the race he's been set for after winning the race at Eagle Farm in June, the Queensland Guineas (1600m).

"He's a really nice horse, he showed that at the end of the autumn with the three races in a row that he won."

Kolding was bred by Warren Pegg and is a half-brother to two black-type performers – the three-time stakes winner Sampson (NZ) (Dubai Destination) and the Listed winner Miss Upstart (Snippetson). Sampson cost just $20,000 at the 2011 Festival Sale and has earned more than $450,000.

Another half-sibling, a filly by Iffraaj, was bought for $150,000 during Book 1 last year.