Mexican Rose Seals Her Spot in the Karaka Million

Two-year-old filly Mexican Rose jumped to sixth position in the current Karaka Million Order of Entry at Ellerslie racecourse on Saturday, on a charity raceday dedicated to raising money for 'Rowing for Prostate Cancer'.

Of the ten races on the card, it was the New Zealand Bloodstock sponsored $15,000 Countdown to Karaka 2YO (1200m) that was the most anticipated race of the day, with thirteen Karaka Million entrants lining up to fight for  a place in the 25 January $1,000,000 feature.

Hullabaloo (Bertolini - Isodara, by Straight Strike) led the field to the home turn before the challengers appeared early in the straight. Ronaldinio (Captain Rio - Plea Innocence, by Alleged) and Seven Schillings (O'Reilly - Lando, by Shannon) attacked the leader in a pair before Seven Schillings got the better of both of them. The grey filly fought hard to the line but Mexican Rose (Volksraad - Down View, by Gone West) ran home strongly centre-track to score victory from the fast finishing Kaaptan (Kaapstad - Fanny Black, by Spectacular Love).

The filly was jockey, James McDonald's, third win on the day from as many races, while the victory was the second on the day for trainer Bruce Wallace. The $9,000 stake for first place takes Mexican Rose's career earnings to $21,500, sixth place on the Karaka Million Order of Entry, and an assured position in the $1,000,000 Karaka Million on 25 January for Singaporean based owners TW Fei and LP Yan.

The filly was an $85,000 purchase by Laurie Laxon at the 2008 Karaka Select Yearling sale from the draft of Chesterfields. From a Gone West mare, out of a Dayjur mare, who is in turn out of a Mill Reef mare, the filly boasts an international pedigree bred by Mark and Carolyn Todd along with UK-based Watership Downs Stud.

Click here to view the latest Million Order of Entry.

Overall, the race day was a huge success in raising money for the Prostate Cancer Awareness cause with plenty of great racing action, including ARC race commentator George Simon just pipping ARC Director of Racing Butch Castles in a 'row off' over 500m. 'Rowing for Prostate Cancer' is an event that will see Auckland Racing Club's Sponsorship Manager Billy Gammon, two of his friends, and a 'lucky' 91.0 ZM Radio listener, bid to become the first four man crew to row the Indian Ocean.

The crew will be the only New Zealand represented team to contest the race which starts in Geraldton, Western Australia, and ends 5,742 kilometres later in Mauritius, an island off the east coast of Africa, a journey that is predicted to take sixty to seventy days to complete. To find out more on how you can support this worthy cause, log onto http://www.rowingforprostate.com/.