Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
Acknowledged as one of the unluckiest horses going around in New Zealand, Jaarffi (Iffraaj) finally got the good fortune she deserved and her first Group One victory when she stormed home to take out the Sport Nation Otaki Maori WFA Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie.
The six-year-old daughter of Iffraaj, who carries the colours of Cambridge Stud principals Sir Brendan Lindsay and Lady Jo Lindsay, has been amongst the top echelon of gallopers in New Zealand for the past two years but had been denied a victory at the elite level on several occasions due to poor barrier draws, interference at crucial times and unsuitable track conditions amongst a host of contributing factors.
Whilst another wide barrier (nine of 11) on Saturday didn’t look promising once again, it played in favour of the Lance Noble-prepared mare as it allowed rider Warren Kennedy to keep her out of trouble in midfield where she sat three wide but in a totally relaxed manner.
Kennedy began to move her forward with 800m to run and she was within striking distance of the leaders rounding the home bend as race favourite Pier made his bid for glory, hotly pursued by Sterling Express.
Just as Pier looked to have the race within his grasp, Jaarffi put in several massive bounds to collar him in the shadows of the post to take the win from the favourite, who held out the late closing run of Provence who snatched third off Sterling Express.
Noble was especially pleased for everyone connected with the mare who had to exhibit untold patience with her.
“Obviously I am absolutely thrilled as she did deserve this,” Noble said.
“She is not an easy mare to train and to achieve this after all the work the staff have put in over the last few years, along with Warren, and for Sir Brendan and Lady Jo, it is just brilliant.
“She got trapped three wide but she has started to relax a lot better out there and probably best she was not stuck on the fence getting into trouble.
“We all do the work for these days and you don’t get many opportunities at them, so to get this for the whole team is just brilliant.
“She has always been a big, gangly and aggressive horse on the training track, so we don’t do a lot of galloping with her, and while she is a six-year-old she is still learning.
“The plan is to go onto the Bonecrusher Stakes (Gr.1, 2000m) in a fortnight (7 March) and all being well we will.”
Kennedy was also quick to pay tribute to the fighting qualities of the mare.
“She has been deserving (of a Group One victory) for a while now and we thought she could pick one up in this preparation,” he said.
“She has just been so unlucky and she did it tough the whole way today.
“She has got such a huge action and so much heart as she gave it her all today and fought like a tiger.
“I wasn’t too concerned when we were wide as she is such a huge striding filly it allowed her to extend when I wanted to.
“Pier gave me a good tussle but she deserved this.”
Bred and raced by Cambridge Stud, Jaarffi has now won five of her 24 starts and over $953,000 in prizemoney.
