Photo: Trish Dunell
Cranbourne trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young have swooped on a pair of progressive three-year-olds from their native New Zealand.
Two-win filly Rising Star (Complacent) and last-start Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) third-placegetter Shoma are welcome additions to the stable.
The Tim and Margaret Carter-trained Rising Star was an impressive winner at Tauranga in mid-November and will sport the colours of Seymour Bloodstock, with the filly’s original trainers also remaining in the ownership.
“I thought she had a really nice turn of foot,” Busuttin said. Morgan Carter alluded to the fact she could possibly be bought. I know Tim and Margaret from when we trained out of Cambridge.
“She was very impressive at Tauranga and she put them away very quickly in that race.”
Rising Star defeated Yamato Satona, who was a solid sixth in the Gr.3 Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) last weekend and looks a Classic prospect.
“Rising Star is a three-year-old, so there are plenty of options for her,” Busutiin said of the daughter of Complacent.
“She is in the stable now so we will spend a couple of weeks getting to know her. We might even give her a little freshen up and look towards a nice Adelaide three-year-old fillies race.
“As a two-win horse, she can go through the grades and obviously when you buy a filly you are hoping she turns into a black-type horse.
“She has been bought for Seymour Bloodstock and Darren Thomas and Mark Pilkington have been big supporters of us since we arrived in Melbourne. They buy a lot of horses out of New Zealand and they have had a lot of success, so hopefully this can be another one.”
Photo: Trish Dunell
Also en route is Shoma, a son of Contributer, who filled the minor placing behind Romanoff and Affirmative Action in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas, which was run on a Heavy track after a freak hail storm on the day.
Despite being a ten-start maiden, Shoma had previously caught the eye when placed behind impressive winner Quantum Legend at Te Rapa, with that horse subsequently exported to Hong Kong.
“He’s run third in a Group One and while he is still a maiden, he's got reasonable form and any Group One form is good form,” Busuttin said.
“He raced on a very wet track and we certainly have plenty of wet tracks in Melbourne over the winter and he wasn't a super expensive horse.
“He's a horse that could progress through the grades and if there are some wet tracks in some of the three-year-old races later in autumn or winter that could suit him.
“Obviously the New Zealand bred horses continue to bat well above their average percentage wise, so it made sense, he was a nice horse on the market.”
New Zealand bred horses have won seven of the 33 Group One races run in Australia this season, or 21 percent, yet account for just 7.9 percent of runners.
