It was a magical ten minutes for broodmare Geordie Girl on Saturday as two of her progeny won feature races in succession.
Within moments of glamour four-year-old mare Legarto taking the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa, her older half-sister Emanon put her eleventh career win on the board by claiming the C S Stevens Memorial Banks Peninsula Cup (1100m) at Riccarton.
While there may not have been as much focus and hoopla around Emanon as there was for the Legarto victory, her core group of supporters were there to cheer on the model of consistency as she defied the late challenge of the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained Millefiori with a display of sheer determination after leading most of the way down the long Riccarton home straight.
Rider Abdul Najib made good use of his 3kg apprentice claim to settle his mount just off the speed set up by Spartan before tackling the pacemaker rounding the home bend.
Emanon pinned her ears back and went for gold, refusing to yield to Millefiori who dashed at her late but failed by a long neck to gather her in with Spartan a similar margin away in third.
Leased to Orari-based trainer Lionel Dobbs and his wife Janine Young by her breeder Warwick Jeffries, Emanon has now won over $300,000 for the couple.
“She has been knocking on the door lately so we made a small adjustment by taking off her tongue tie and that looks to have worked nicely,” Young said.
“She is a real fighter who doesn’t like anything coming alongside her and that showed at the finish.
“She is a dream to do anything with and is just getting stronger and stronger. We don’t gallop her much as she doesn’t need it and she is pretty relaxed about it all.
“After the race we took her home and she had a roll and ate some grass and was pretty ho hum about it all.
“She can have two or three days off now and then we will get her ready for another open race at Wingatui in a fortnight.
“Abdul can ride her again as they seem to get on well and his 3kg claim is very handy.”
Emanon arrived at the couple’s stable as a two-year-old and the pair have done all the work with her from day one.
“We have a great relationship with Warwick and have had a fair few horses for him that he has sent us,” Young said.
“He rang one day and said he had a two-year-old and would we like to race her on lease.
“We said yes and when she arrived she had been broken in but not put through the gates or anything like that.
“Lionel took her to get her barrier certificate and he rode her at about 80kgs and she jumped out, put two lengths on the others and never looked back from there.
“She has won eleven races now and we need a bigger wall for all her photos.
“The only problem is her lease runs out on the 1st of May and we are pretty sure Warwick will want to take her back.
“We think she could be in for her best year next season so we will need to have a chat with him and see if we can get an extension as we think she can get some black type and add even more value towards her broodmare career.”
Emanon comes from an extended family that traces back to outstanding juvenile Ballybrit who was crowned the 1974/75 season champion two-year-old of New Zealand. - LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
