Mammoth offer turned down for NZ 1000 Guineas favourite

The connections of NZ 1000 Guineas favourite Asturia have turned down an eye-watering offer that now ranks her as one of the most valuable horses racing in New Zealand.

Te Akau founder and boss Sir David Ellis confirmed to the Herald today the syndicate of owners behind the 3-year-old filly unanimously voted to retain her rather than accept the mammoth offer.

While he could not comment on the exact number, taking a line through what recent fillies with similar starts to their career have been sold for – most recently Well Written last season – the offer must have been somewhere in the $2 million range.

“We think she is a very exciting filly and her owners want to keep racing her,” Ellis told the Herald.

“So she will stay in Te Akau’s colours and head to the NZ 1000 Guineas next week.”

Asturia has only had three starts, winning a strong maiden on debut before finishing second to the highly rated Old Fashioned in the Hawke’s Bay Guineas.

She was subsequently a stunning winner of the Windsor Park Soliloquy Stakes at Ellerslie two weeks ago, a victory that has her rated a $1.90 chance to win the 1000 Guineas at Riccarton on Saturday week.

“She is really blossoming and has developed into a wonderful filly,” says Ellis, who paid $135,000 for Asturia at the Karaka yearling sales in January last year to secure her from breeders Monovale Farms.

“She is by Almanzor, who is a stallion we have had a lot of success with, and while the offer was for a lot of money she has the opportunity to race for huge money in coming months.”

The Barneswood Farm 1000 Guineas is worth $600,000, while Asturia is eligible for the $1.5 million NZB Karaka Millions 3YO in January and the $4.5m NZB Kiwi on March 6.

All three of those races were won by Well Written last season, while the year before the Te Akau-trained Damask Rose won both the Karaka Millions 3YO and the NZB Kiwi.

While Asturia has a long way to go and a hectic summer to negotiate before she can boast the record of Damask Rose – or even more imposingly, Well Written – she has started her career in very similar fashion to the latter.

Ellis says even if Asturia wins the NZ 1000 Guineas she will not back up in the 2000 Guineas, which is open to fillies and colts, at Riccarton on November 14.

But the stable is likely to have another filly in that Group 1.

“Sword Of Stars, the filly who won the War Decree at Riccarton for us last Saturday, will almost certainly go to the 2000 Guineas as we think the three weeks between races will suit her.”

Te Akau’s trainers Sam Bergerson and Mark Walker will also have System Of Play in the $700,000 Al Basti Equiworld 2000 Guineas, even after he was a disappointing favourite in the Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa on Monday.

He sat midfield and only battled up the straight in the race, won by Coniston, who has replaced System Of Play as the 2000 Guineas favourite.

“Initially it looked disappointing but I watched it a couple more times this morning [Tuesday] and I think it wasn’t as bad as I first thought,” Ellis says.

“So he is still definitely heading to Riccarton and will most likely have the blinkers applied.”

System Of Play remains on the second line of betting for the 2000 Guineas at $6 behind joint $5 favourites Coniston and Excite.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.