La Diosa lead up plans
Brilliant New Zealand Bloodstock Canterbury Belle Stakes winner La Diosa may have only one more race start before she contests the Group One gavelhouse.com $300,000 44th NZ 1000 Guineas on 12thNovember at Riccarton Park.
After Saturday’s racing that included the Gold Trail Stakes at Hastings, La Diosa has been listed as equal second favourite with Honey Rider at $8.00, marginally behind Bella Gioia at $7.00 with Starvoia at $9.00.
Trainers Matt and Mandy Brown and the filly’s breeder and majority part-owner Terry Archer have conferred since her outstanding win over Starvoia on Saturday and are leaning towards just one more race, the Listed $50,000 John Grigg Stakes at Ashburton on 15th October, before contesting the ‘blue ribbon’ fillies event at Riccarton Park on 12th November.
The good news for connections is that La Diosa has taken no harm from Saturday’s win: “She has pulled up very well and we are very happy with her,” Mandy Brown said from their North Canterbury base at Ngapuke this week. “
“We are keeping an open mind about her program as we know things like weather can be an influence on where and when you run, but at present we think the next Riccarton Park meeting is too soon and ideally we want her to step up to 1400 metres before the 1600 metres of the Guineas,” added Mandy.
That thinking not only eliminates the Guineas Trial at Riccarton Park on Saturday week but also the Listed $70,000 Zacinto Stakes three weeks later on 22nd October, a 1600 metre event open to colts and fillies. The upshot is four weeks between races going into the John Grigg Stakes and then another four weeks to the 1000 Guineas. Both Matt and Mandy Brown, and Terry Archer, are comfortable with that program although their top filly also remains an entry in the $400,000 Sothys 44th NZ 2000 Guineas on the first day of ‘Cup Week,’ 5th November.
The Brown’s are very aware of La Diosa’s long term potential. There is the prospect of a long season ahead including some travelling and spring racing for three-year-old fillies that could be very taxing, and one gets the feeling that this astute husband and wife training partnership is focused on La Diosa being well looked-after and realising her full potential.
As well as being a quality individual and beautifully conformed with a temperament to match, La Diosa’s pedigree reveals many more clues. Her sire So You Think, by High Chaparral, was a world-class performer in both the southern and northern hemispheres, winning 10 Group One races, and during a stellar season in 2011 he won more prizemoney in the UK than the great, unbeaten Frankel.
So You Think won at distances between 1400 and 2200 metres He was a very tough, consistent racehorse and in his first season at stud, 2011, Terry Archer sent his Star Way mare Star Affair across the ditch to Coolmore Stud in Australia for the mating that would result in La Diosa. The dam Star Affair had won four races up to 1600 metres including the Group Two Travis Stakes at Te Rapa, and a third in the Group Three Gosford Gold Cup.
Such a good foal was La Diosa, that at only five days old a prominent breeder offered to purchase her for $300,000. It was considered and refused. You see, it wasn’t just the perfectly conformed foal that was the attraction but the family is stacked with black type - the very best to come from the depths of the South Island.
Star Affair’s dam is The Grin, a stakes winning Grosvenor mare, herself a daughter of the highly performed Noble Bijou mare, The Dimple, which in turn is a daughter of the Dennis brothers foundation mare The Kurd, by Kurdistan. This family’s proliferation of top group performing horses includes such iconic names Horse Of The Year, The Phantom, The Phantom Chance and The Twinkle.
La Diosa’s half brother Solid Billing won the AJC Group Three Summer Cup in Sydney in seven wins up to 3200 metres and her 2nd dam, The Grin, won the Southland Guineas and at stud produced Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 2002-03, The Jewel, whose 11 wins included two group ones, one of which was the New Zealand 1000 Guineas.
Few South Island fillies have won the New Zealand 1000 Guineas since Noble Heights won the inaugural race in 1981 but La Diosa certainly shapes up as a legitimate contender. There’s no doubt she will run a very strong 1600 metres based on both her style of racing and a pedigree that’s littered with highly quality middle-distance performers.
Racing in the South Island is due for a boost and with a stronger than normal local representation of big race contenders, the northern visiting horses will be facing sterner opposition this spring – La Diosa leading the charge in a bid to emulate her close relative, The Jewel.
by Brian de Lore
