Dual Oaks winner Pennyweka will return to New Zealand for a break following her resounding victory in the Gr.1 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Trainer Jim Wallace had initially been keen to send the daughter of Satono Aladdin for a break following her Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) triumph last month, but the filly thrived in the days following.
A late nomination for the Australian Oaks ensued and Pennyweka did the rest, proving a superior stayer to her rivals and winning comfortably despite travelling wide throughout.
“She will go to the paddock for six to eight weeks and then we will have a look at the programs both at home and in Australia and see what we can figure out and where we go,” Wallace said.
“I think down the track, not this year but next year, she could well be a Melbourne Cup (Gr.1, 3200m) horse. I am not a great believer in four-year-old mares in those sort of high-pressure handicaps of Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
“I think she will be much better in another year. She has got a lot of developing to do physically. She is not the biggest horse in the world and time will be her friend.”
For the 76-year-old trainer, Pennyweka, a filly he bred with his brother Les, has given him renewed enthusiasm for the caper.
Wallace, who prepared multiple Group One winner Cent Home, who campaigned successfully in New Zealand and Australia, has only two horses in work.
“I had virtually retired. A couple of years after Cent Home won the St George Stakes (Gr.2, 1800m) at Caulfield, I more or less gave the job away and I have only had very spasmodic runners in the interim, until this filly came along and got me fired up again,” Wallace said. - NZ RAcing Desk
