WHEN it comes to yearling sales, Theresa Bateup doesn’t need to think twice to name her favorite.
The Kembla Grange trainer went home with a quinella result at Moruya on Sunday with two “girls” she purchased at Inglis Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association auctions in Sydney.
Mystic Diva ($3.60), ridden by Quayde Krogh, defeated stablemate Pretty Please ($41) in the Maiden Plate (1660m).
Bateup has a canny eye for bargains, and had to spend only $3000 to secure Mystic Diva at the 2021 sale, and just a little more ($5000) to get Pretty Please at the same sale 12 months later.
“Yes I do like the HTBA sale,” Bateup candidly said on the return trip home.
It was the very same sale (then known as the Inglis Scone sale) at which she bought Monegal for a mere $3000 in 2017.
The Lope De Vega mare won $650,000 in prizemoney (including a Group 3 Epona Stakes, 1900m at Rosehill Gardens) for her connections before embarking on a breeding career, foaling a Wootton Bassett colt last year.
Bateup, who clinched her second winner of the new season ($7000 online buy Kickamushu was the first at Nowra last Monday), was understandably delighted to get a breakthrough result with five-year-old Mystic Diva, a daughter of Divine Prophet.
“She has been unlucky in a number of her races, and thankfully her 13th start proved lucky this time,” she said.
“She deserved this win.
“Mystic Diva was placed at her two previous starts, and I was confident she would be hard to beat.
“I wasn’t surprised Pretty Please did so well either at big odds.
“Even though it was only her fourth start, her runs have been good and I expected her to run a cheeky race.”
The Bateup quinella paid $93.70 for a $1 investment on the NSW TAB, and the exacta returned an even healthier $195.60.
Moruya is Bateup’s third most winningest track behind the Sapphire Coast and her home base at Kembla Grange.
. Following apprentice Ben Osmond’s maiden city success for his boss, leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees, on Hellavadancer ($7) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, there was a flurry of other provincial weekend winners.
Leading Kembla Grange trainers Rob and Luke Price’s 2023-24 Kembla Horse Of The Year Headstock continued in winning vein, humping 61kg to land the Provincial Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m) at home, and Wyong’s Tracey Bartley’s Lady Superspy also was a winner there, in the Conditional Benchmark 68 Handicap (1600m).
Aside from Brad Widdup’s Wyong Cup Prelude success on Sunday with favorite Guzumped, four local trainers also entered the winner’s circle at the meeting.
Damien Lane won the Provincial Maiden Plate (1600m) with Oakfield Blue Bell ($3.30), Rod Bailey the Class 1 Handicap (1600m) with Let’s Go Johnny ($4.20), Wayne Seelin the 4YO & Up Maiden Handicap (1100m) with $51 bolter Sapphire Kiss, and Kim Waugh the Midway Benchmark 64 Handicap (1350m) with Foolish ($9).
Rory Hutchings picked up a fortunate late winning ride on Let’s Go Johnny from an indisposed Jenny Duggan.
Story John Curtis, August 18 2024
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