Impressive Stakes Win for Formidable (NZ)

Formidable (NZ) (Shocking), who cost $39,000 at the 2016 Select Sale, stepped up to stakes level with a win in Sunday’s $50,000 Listed Auckland Age Concerns 3YO Salver (2100m) at Ellerslie and may now take a shot at the Karaka Million 3YO Classic.

The gelding raced back in the field throughout the race and was last at the 200-metre mark, but with Leith Innes in the saddle he sprinted through a gap and got up to win by a long neck from fellow Select Sale graduate The Boy Wonder (NZ) (Cape Blanco).

Trained by Shaune Ritchie, who also shares ownership with a group that includes Kirk Devers’ KRD Racing, Formidable has now had six starts for two wins, two placings and $44,600 in prize-money.

Ritchie is now setting his sights on the $1 million Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) in March, with the possibility of another million-dollar race along the way.

“That’s the sort of performance you like to see when you’re pressing forward towards the big dance in March,” he said. “He’s got his ticket, I guess, with that win today.

“He’s a horse who just keeps improving. He hadn’t got it right each time, he’s made some mistakes, but he’s got better and better as he’s stepped up over more ground.

“We just might run him in the Karaka Million 3YO Classic – he’s got an entry for it. We might have to put blinkers on him to sharpen him up a bit, it’s a bit short for him, but it’s a million-dollar race and you have to have a go.”

Bred by Rich Hill Stud’s Thompson family, Formidable is by their resident stallion Shocking out of the Casino Prince mare Princess Biscotte – a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Barkada (Spectrum).

Formidable is raced by KRD Racing Pty Ltd, A Arena, C Pintaudi, M S & T R Dalzell and S F Ritchie.