Mare shows plenty of power to win Levin Stakes
Talented sprinter Gift of Power took her stakes-winning tally to three at Otaki on Friday when she won the Listed Fasttrack Insurance Levin Stakes (1200m) in dominant fashion.
The four-year-old mare was caught three-wide in an early speed duel with Shadow Fox and race-favourite Indecision, but jockey Lisa Allpress was able to wrestle the ascendancy for the role of pacemaker and the daughter of Power was never headed.
The Team Rogerson-trained runner set a blistering pace to distance her rivals, winning by two and a half lengths over Rock ‘N’ Affair in a slick time of 1.09.59.
“She was certainly dominant. It takes a very good young mare to do that, sit three wide, do the work and leave them behind,” co-trainer Graeme Rogerson said.
“Michelle (Northcote, travelling foreman) said her work on Tuesday morning was as good as she’s ever worked.
“I think she is a mare in the top bracket and it would be nice to win a Group 1 with her.”
The $180,000 New Zealand Bloodstock yearling sale purchase will get her chance at the elite level in the coming months, with the Group 1 Sistema Railway (1200m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day and Group 1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) at Trentham in January on her hit-list.
“She’s in the Railway and Telegraph and I think she is going back to Manawatu for an open sprint in two weeks’ time,” Rogerson said.
“She’s better left-handed, although she has been placed at Ellerslie.”
Rogerson has got a lot of time for the mare, a daughter of Group 1-placed Capital Diamond, who descends from the famed Eight Carat-family, and said her connections will be weighing up their options with the mare in the near future.
“She’s a very top-class mare and what’s her value as a broodmare now? She’s from the best pedigree, she’s won nine races now.”
Her victory is timely for Cambridge Stud who will offer a Tavistock half-brother to Gift of Power at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Book 1 session at their Yearling Sale in January next year.