23 February 2010
This season’s exciting sprinting find, Wealth Princess, went within a whisker of a a valuable Group 1 success when she beat all but Tavistock home in the $200,000 Waikato Draught Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa on Saturday.
“I was confident of her going close to winning today and she came that close,” said Wealth Princess’ Hamilton owner-trainer, Brent Gillovic, as he showed the closeness of the margin between the first two runners home.
Wealth Princess looked to have the weight-for-age feature race at her mercy when she burst to the front inside the final 200 metres but she was gunned down by Tavistock close to the line. The margin separating the first pair home was only a neck and Wealth Princess had 1 ¼ lengths to spare over third placegetter, the multiple Group 1 winner and current New Zealand Horse Of The Year Mufhasa, who had been successful in the race 12 months earlier.
-"It was a gutsy performance from her and she showed today she is right up to the very best horses in NZ. We dragged Tavistock into the race from the 600m and he was able to slingshot her at the death. One can only muse what might have been, but all things going well, she will have her day in the sun at the elite level. After all she was a Rating 70 horse only 6 starts ago. She has come an awful long way in a very short time. She will go out for a spell now and could return for a winter campaign in Brisbane. She's had enough for now, but wow what an exciting mare!" he said.
“For Wealth Princess it was the first time she had suffered a defeat on the Te Rapa course. She had won her three previous outings on the course including a track-record breaking win over 1200 metres in December.
She has won five times and had a second placing in only seven career appearances to date. Her only time out of the money was in the Group 1 Telegraph Handicap in which she was blocked for runs the entire journey and was desperately unlucky not to finish second at worst.
