Photo: Brett Holburt (Racing Photos)
An international partnership savoured a top result at Flemington on Saturday when Miss Waititi broke her maiden in style in the Listed Super Impose Stakes (1800m).
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained daughter of Circus Maximus was bred by Windsor Park Stud with the Singapore-based Ben Kwok and Australian’s Katom, an entity of Coolmore.
“She’s always been very highly regarded by the stable and earlier in the year they spruiked her to us as one that would really go places,” Windsor Park General Manager Steve Till said.
“Not many win a stakes race at their third start at a Flemington carnival, she was very strong and she’s now a $4 favourite for the VRC Oaks (Gr.1, 2500m).”
Miss Waititi was initially passed in at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale by Windsor Park and was subsequently sold for $30,000 to Cambridge trainer Tony Pike at the stud’s South Island Rugby, Racing and Beer Sale.
A trial placing at Avondale last year subsequently caught the eye of agent Phill Cataldo, and on his recommendation, she was purchased by clients of Price and Kent.
She is out of the unraced Fastnet Rock mare Fritillary, who was a A$165,000 buy at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
“We went through the catalogue to come up with a short list and Roddy (Schick) went over to the sale and he liked the mare,” Till said.
“We had to go a bit above budget for her, but it’s a beautiful family that’s had a lot of success in the States and Coolmore has had a lot to do with it.
“They offered Fritillary and approached Roddy to see if they could keep a piece of her.
“We’ve had a long association with Coolmore, going back to the late 1990s when we first got Tale Of The Cat and all the shuttle horses like Montjeu, High Chaparral, Mastercraftsman etc and right up to today with Auguste Rodin and Circus Maximus.”
Kwok also has a long and successful relationship with Windsor Park and has a number of mares resident at the farm.
“Ben came in on Fritillary and he had a good weekend, he was also involved in the breeding of the two-year-old winner (Shraddha, Gr.3 Gimcrack Stakes, 1000m) and had a winner (Larius Lacus) at Timaru as well,” Till said.
Miss Waititi’s juvenile sister has been retained and is currently being broken in, while Fritillary produced a colt this season by Auguste Rodin and has been served by Paddington.
The partnership is also breeding from Fritillary’s first foal, the unraced Yes Yes Yes mare Affirmation.
“She’s got a lovely Circus Maximus colt going to Karaka next year so that’s a major lift on the pedigree page for him,” Till said.
