Robbie Patterson looks to have another serious Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m) contender on his hands following Ultimate Habit’s (Embellish) victory at Trentham on Saturday.
The promising daughter of Embellish broke through for her maiden win in the Gr.2 Jennian Homes Lowland Stakes (2100m), a race Patterson won last year with Leicy Lucy before she won the Oaks, and he is looking forward to shooting for back-to-back wins in the Classic at its new home of Ellerslie next month.
“We are definitely going to go to the Oaks on that,” Patterson said. “It is going to be a lot trickier going the other way around at Ellerslie, but she is such a laidback filly.”
Ultimate Habit had three prior starts, finishing second at New Plymouth last month before running sixth in the Gr.3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) at Trentham a fortnight ago, and Patterson was confident of a bold showing despite her last start result.
“I wasn’t disappointed with her run the other day, she just got stuck on the inside on a tricky track, but I knew she was a good filly,” he said.
“The two runs at home, the way she got home she was unlucky, she should have won her maiden.
“Gryllysy (Craig Grylls) rode her a peach, got her in a good rhythm and the horse had a good turn of foot.”
Grylls was impressed with Ultimate Habit’s good turn of foot when running down her rivals late after racing off the pace for the majority of the journey, but he said she still has plenty of maturing and improvement to come.
“She had enough speed, which was good,” Grylls said. “She raced a little bit keen still, but she cruised into it at the right time. She is still pretty new and green to it, she wanted to lay in and still did a couple of things wrong, but she has done it pretty comfortably in the end.
“I was really happy to secure the ride. Her last run wasn’t that great on paper, but Robbie filled me with confidence, he said he had a good one and he has proved that right.”
From Taranaki racing royalty, Ultimate Habit hails from the family of 11-time Group One winner Rough Habit, which also includes Group One winners Molly Bloom and Addictive Habit, and Group One performer Citi Habit.
Out of winning Bachelor Duke mare Queens Habit, Ultimate habit has now won one and placed in one of her four starts to date and earned more than $107,000 in prizemoney.
