Unbeaten Altered Image Wins NZB Castletown Stakes
3 June 2008
Karaka Festival Sale graduate Altered Image (Strategic Image x Dented Ambition by Danasinga) kept his unbeaten record intact with a win in the $55,000 Listed NZ Bloodstock Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Foxton yesterday.
Guided by Michael Coleman for Mike and Paul Moroney, the promising two-year-old finished with a half-head to spare from I Robot (Ishiguru x Echo Beach by Prince Echo) with a further three-and-a-half lengths back to Reuben Thorn (Thorn Park x Our Sportsgirl by Desert Sun) in third.
The Moroney stable achieved a unique quinella in the race being the trainers, co-owners and managers of both the winner and the Lisa Cropp ridden I Robot. Paul Moroney purchased the winner at the 2007 Festival Sale from his breeder, Dean Hawthorne's Belmont Farm, for $20,000 while the runner up was a $110,000 Premier Sale yearling from Chequers Stud.
Yesterday's win, combined with his debut win at Avondale and his brilliant six-and-a-half length victory at Te Aroha on NZB Breeders Stakes day, brings his earnings to $61,250.
There are just two more chances for juveniles to record valuable black-type success this season with the Listed Northland Breeders Stakes (1200m) at Ruakaka on 12 July and the Listed Levin RC Ryder Stakes (1200m) on 26 July.
The Castletown Stakes was the last of New Zealand Bloodstock's prolific race sponsorships for the season, this year amounting to 28 races plus the prestigious NZ Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series, won by Insouciant, and the NZ Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series, won by Belmont Cat.