Aloisia (NZ) Claims Thousand Guineas

Azamour filly Aloisia (NZ), who could have been bought for just $60,000 at the 2016 Select Sale at Karaka, took on some of Australia’s finest fillies and won in Saturday’s A$500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield.

Ridden in midfield by Luke Nolen, she dashed through along the inside rail in the straight and outfinished Shoals (Fastnet Rock) and Alizee (Sepoy) to win by a length and a quarter.

“We came here expecting her to run well, but her aim has always been towards the Oaks,” trainer Aaron Purcell said. “We'll keep pushing on.”

Aloisia was bred by Matamata couple Jason and Kelly Price and the latter’s brother Michael Hall. When she was passed in at the 2016 Select Sale, the filly’s breeders retained her to race her themselves.

Trained by Jason Price, she had two New Zealand starts for a fifth and a fast-finishing second, in which she beat the subsequent Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas winner Hard Merchandize (NZ) (Burgundy).

Aloisia was then privately sold to an Australian syndicate headed by Terry Henderson’s OTI Racing. She won on Australian debut at Flemington, then finished an unlucky second in the Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) in Brisbane. Her resuming run for this season was a luckless fifth over 1400 metres at Caulfield.

The Thousand Guineas heroine, who provided a first Group 1 win to her new trainer Purcell, has now had six starts for two wins, two placings and A$487,865 in prizemoney.