Sweet Success for Mascarpone (NZ) in WFA Classic

After three placings at Group One level, super-talented Karaka graduate Mascarpone (NZ) (Shooting To Win) broke through for a richly deserved success in Saturday’s $220,000 El Cheapo Cars WFA Classic (1600m) at Otaki.

The chestnut gelding has now won eight of his 26 starts, with 10 placings and $427,975 in stakes. He was bought by Team Rogerson for $160,000 from Westbury Stud’s Book 1 draft at Karaka 2018.

The winner of the Group Two Foxbridge Plate (1200m) at Te Rapa in the spring, Mascarpone’s recent Group One attempts had been a series of admirable supporting roles. Last summer he finished fourth behind superstar Avantage (Fastnet Rock) in the Telegraph (1200m) and third to the same rival in the BCD Group Sprint (1400m), and this season he ran third in the same two races behind Levante (NZ) (Proisir).

The retired nine-time Group One winner Avantage and this season’s star Levante were both absent from Saturday’s field, but the WFA Classic still represented a leap into the unknown for Mascarpone. It was only his third start over 1600 metres, having been unplaced in both the Group One Levin Classic and $1m Karaka Million 3YO Classic as a three-year-old. But now Mascarpone is two years older and significantly stronger, and Saturday’s big race had a very different outcome.

Sent straight to the lead by apprentice jockey Wiremu Pinn, Mascarpone dominated the race from the front and ran his 10 rivals into the ground.

Mascarpone rounded the home turn with a big advantage, and he never let up down the Otaki straight. He charged past the finish line with a two-length margin up his sleeve, with Te Akau Racing’s Amarelinha (NZ) (Savabeel) and Brando (NZ) (Savabeel) finishing second and third respectively.

“He has won pretty easily and just towed me everywhere,” Pinn said. “I actually didn’t think he would get the mile today – I thought he was just a 1200 to 1400-metre horse, but he has proved me wrong.

“It took me a while to pull him up as well, so maybe he might want even a little bit further.”

Co-trainer Debbie Rogerson was delighted to see Mascarpone measure up over Saturday’s longer distance.

“He had been over the mile as a three-year-old, but he just wasn’t strong enough to cope with it back then,” she said. “He has strengthened up over the last two seasons, and this year we always thought we would like to get him back to the mile at some stage.

“When he went so well at Te Rapa last time, Graeme (Rogerson) said this was the race to win, so we set our sights on it and that has paid off. He was the true weight-for-age performer in the race and Wiremu rode him extremely well.

“We’ll just take him home now and see how he recovers from this before deciding what we tackle next. I think, the way he has improved and matured, we could be looking at races over 2000 metres in the future.

“He loves racing at Te Rapa, so you could see him in a race like the Herbie Dyke Stakes this time next year.”

Karaka graduates completed a clean sweep of the Otaki feature, with Amarelinha and Brando both bought by Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis – Amarelinha for $300,000 from Book 1 of Karaka 2019, and Brando for $500,000 from the 2019 Ready to Run Sale.

Westbury Stud will offer a half-sister to Mascarpone at Karaka 2022 – a filly by Reliable Man, catalogued as Lot 261 in Book 1.

Vendor	Westbury Stud
Purchaser	Team Rogerson
Breeding	Shooting To Win – Fromage
Sale	Lot 224, Karaka 2018 Book 1, $160,000
Bred by	G Harvey