Churchillian claims Tauranga Classic

Consistent mare Churchillian (NZ)(Churchill) did what she does best when leading all the way to claim her third career black type success in the Listed Team Wealleans Tauranga Classic (1400m) on Saturday.

The Tony Pike-trained daughter of Churchill has endeared herself to the racing public with her take no prisoners frontrunning style and she adopted similar tactics on Saturday in the hands of Sam Collett, who was back to raceday riding after enjoying a decent holiday break in Europe recently.

Collett took her straight to the front, where she was joined by Miss Bo Peep (NZ) (Astern) and the pair set up a leisurely speed at the head of proceedings.

It was apparent that Churchillian had plenty of petrol in the tank when Collett pressed the go button rounding the home bend, where she sat hard up against the rail as she established a three-length break on her rivals who were spread across the track trying to track her down.

Churchillian never looked like stopping as she cruised over the final 150m, winning by just on two lengths from Kaimai Queen (NZ) (Atlante) and Churchillian’s stablemate Thooza (NZ) (Almanzor), who both finished strongly near the outside running rail.

With Pike on an overseas holiday at present, it was left to stable representative Ryan Stacey to sum up the winning performance.

“She has been going so well and we’ve just had to keep getting the work into her since her last run,” Stacey said. “She is just so consistent and is holding that form.

“Sam got her out of the gates well, controlled the race and she has brained them.

“Her record suggests that 1400m is her sweet spot and she showed that again today.”

Collett was glowing in her praise for Churchillian.

“Tony and the team have done an amazing job to keep her up, keep her happy, in what has been a busy prep for her,” she said.

“She just has that zest for life, which she showed today and when I asked her for some more gas she dug really deep.

“She didn’t really grab the bit and drag me along like she can do, so I was trying to pick my ground from the half mile (800m) to where she was comfy and when I kicked she was off and was always going to find the line.”

By Coolmore Stud’s four-time Group One winner Churchill, Churchillian was bred by Sir Peter Vela under his Pencarrow Thoroughbreds banner from his Fastnet Rock mare Fond du Coeur.

She has now won 11 of her 27 starts and prizemoney in excess of $406,000.