| Te Akau’s incredible record of success with purchases from the Gold Coast continued at Trentham on Saturday when untapped juvenile Seize the Day scored a runaway win in the Group One Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m). |
| The Tangerine Team have now swept both Group Ones for juveniles with a pair of crack youngsters purchased from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Earlier this month it was the unbeaten filly Lara Antipova, who was a Fortuna Racing syndication, winning the Group One Sistema Stakes and now her stablemate Seize the Day has raced to stardom. Sent out the $2.80 favourite, Seize the Day had to cross from an outside barrier but unleashed a withering burst at the top of the straight and put the race away promptly. At the post rider Opie Bosson had time to sit up and pose for the photographers as he and his colt were four and a half lengths clear of their rivals. “I took my time a little bit (early) to see what was going to happen and I thought ‘I better get moving here, I am going to be caught three deep’, so I elected to slide forward,” Bosson told reporters. “It took a couple of strides for him to come back to me but once he did, he relaxed beautifully and I think it was the right idea to take the blinkers off.” “I wasn’t happy with his manners going to the start, but in the race they were perfect. He is a lovely big colt, has a massive stride on him and he is just so smooth underneath you. It makes my job easy.” The win was the eighth in the past nine years for the power Te Akau Racing operation and co-trainer Sam Bergerson was suitably impressed with the performance of the winning colt. “He is just an outstanding colt and we have liked him from day one,” Bergerson said. “We thought he would have been racing a bit earlier than he was, it just took a while for the penny to drop.” “He is just going from strength to strength and it is so exciting to see him put in a performance like that. Opie summed it up well, he was in two minds at the start and he made the right choice.” “The way he quickened was really exciting. I thought he was travelling really nicely at the top of the straight and I thought ‘gee, I would love to stick the blinkers on him now’. Thankfully he just switched on and he has gone to another level since Matamata.” Seize the Day and Lara Intipova follow in the hoofsteps of so many Group One winning Te Akau Racing graduates like Imperatriz, Princess Coup, Captured by Love, Return to Conquer, Move to Strike, Campionessa, Sword of State, Costa Viva and Tell a Tale to have been sourced from the Gold Coast by David Ellis and his team. Saturday’s headliner Seize the Day, a son of Yarraman Park Stud’s champion resident sire I Am Invincible, was a $600,000 buy for Ellis, Te Akau Racing and Kia Ora Stud last year on the Coast. He is from the grand producer Zimaretto, a Sydney placed daughter of Anabaa who is now the dam of four individual stakes winners. Aside from Seize the Day, Zimaretto is the dam of multiple Group Three winner California Zimbol (I Am Invincible) and fellow stakes winners From Within (Not a Single Doubt) and Cruden Bay (Not a Single Doubt). Winner: Seize the Day Breeding: I Am Invincible-Zimaretto (Anabaa) Race: Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes G1 (1400m) Sold for: $600,000 Sale: 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale Earnings: NZ$334,225 Breeders: HJ Mitchell, Yarraman Park Stud Partnership & M Freedman Vendor: Yarraman Park Stud Buyer: David Ellis BAFNZ/Te Akau Racing/Kia Ora Stud Owners: Te Akau 2025 Magic Colts Breeding Syndicate (Mgr: Karyn Fenton-Ellis MNZM) Trainers: Mark Walker & Sam Bergerson (Matamata) PIC – Kenton Wright, Race Images (NZ). |
