While the $100,000 NZB Insurance Weight-For-Age Triple Crown bonus is no longer a possibility this season, three runners in Saturday’s $200,000 Group One Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m) at Ellerslie have the chance to achieve an unprecedented feat.
Along with the Sprint Triple Crown and Fillies and Mares’ Triple Crown, the Weight-For-Age Triple Crown is one of three NZB Insurance Series introduced this year to boost prize-money through New Zealand’s feature summer and autumn racing. Each Series carries a $100,000 bonus for any horse who can win all of the three designated races.
The Sprint Triple Crown has already concluded, with a different winner for each of the three races – Julius (NZ) (Swiss Ace) in the Group One Railway (1200m), Avantage (Fastnet Rock) in the Group One Telegraph (1200m) and Te Akau Shark (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) in the Group One BCD Group Sprint (1400m).
The Weight-For-Age Triple Crown has so far followed a similar script. True Enough (NZ) (Nom du Jeu) won the Group One Zabeel Classic (2000m), but he was then defeated by Tiptronic (NZ) (O’Reilly) in a photo finish in the Group One Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m).
True Enough and Tiptronic will head to Ellerslie for a rematch on Saturday, both attempting to become the first horse to win more than one leg of any NZB Insurance Triple Crown Series.
But they are not the only ones chasing some Triple Crown history. Avantage, who won the Telegraph over 1200 metres less than two months ago, could achieve the highly unusual feat of winning races in more than one Triple Crown category. She is a last-start Group One winner over 1600 metres and will step up to 2000 metres for the first time on Saturday.
On The Rocks (NZ) (Alamosa) was a Group One winner in last year’s Herbie Dyke Stakes, while Prise De Fer (NZ) (Savabeel), Rock On Wood (NZ) (Redwood), Supera (NZ) (Savabeel) and Rondinella (NZ) (Ocean Park) have all placed at the elite level.
The New Zealand Stakes will be run as Race 8 on Saturday, with a start time of 4:55pm.
