Caulfield Cup Possible for Almanzor Mare

Just 10 months after her career started, emerging mare Positivity (NZ) (Almanzor) became a three-time Group winner with a tenacious victory in Saturday’s A$200,000 Group Three Catanach’s Jewellers MRC Foundation Cup (2000m) at Caulfield.

Positivity was offered by Woburn Farm in Book 1 of Karaka 2022, where owner Ben Kwok bought her for $160,000. The Andrew Forsman-trained mare has had 10 starts for four wins, two seconds and A$452,095 in stakes.

Positivity made her debut with a fourth placing over 1400 metres at Matamata on December 22. She won a 1600-metre maiden at Tauranga in her second start on January 2, then had little luck when finishing seventh in the Group Three Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) and eighth in the Group Two David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m).

Victory in the Group Three Sunline Vase (2100m) at Ellerslie in early March earned Positivity a shot at the Group One New Zealand Oaks (2400m), in which she ran a superb race for second behind Pulchritudinous (NZ) (Wrote). Positivity then ventured to South Australia, where she ran ninth in the Group One Australasian Oaks (2000m) and won the Group Three SA Fillies’ Classic (2500m).

Positivity kicked off her four-year-old season with a bold second in the Listed Heatherlie Handicap (1700m) on August 31, and Saturday’s MRC Foundation Cup was another big step forward.

After enjoying a handy run in fourth, jockey Harry Coffey presented Positivity on the outside of Future History (Showcasing) in the home straight. That rival responded to the challenge, with Gear Up (Teofilo) and Saint George (Roaring Lion) joining in wider out on the track, but Positivity kept lifting and kept finding and edged them all out by a short head.

Saturday’s win earned Positivity a ballot-free entry into next month’s A$5m Group One Caulfield Cup (2400m).

“We’ll have to see how she pulls up from this win, talk to Andrew and see what he wants to do with that,” Forsman’s Flemington stable representative Chloe Cumming said.

“This is a pretty incredible feeling. She's been super in her work coming into this and she looks amazing, and so to see her get it on the line is pretty incredible.

“She’s come a long way since she came over in the autumn. She’s acclimatised and she’s been thriving since she’s been over here. She’s been loving it.”

Saturday’s performance made a big impression on Positivity’s jockey.

“It’s awesome for this horse to run some consistent races and get rewarded today,” Coffey said. “She’s a real scopey, lengthy type. I don't reckon she actually knows what’s going on fully yet, still a lot of raw ability there, but it’s good for her to win this race today.

“Obviously not only is this race special because of what’s attached to it with all the charities involved, but it’s a race that springboards a lot into the majors in the spring, so any horse that wins it, you know they’re going the right way.

“All you can do is win. That’s two really consistent runs in a row, so I suppose she’s going to get into the Caulfield Cup with no weight. I might have to get on the brown rice diet to ride her. But all you can do is win, and that’s what she’s doing, so she’s going the right way.”