NZ JAN 31 - SCORE ONE FOR QUEENSLAND

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The third running of the NZ$1 million Karaka Million at Ellerslie produced the first Australian trained winner in the form of Sister Havana. To be more precise, it was an all Queensland victory as Sister Havana is trained by the Brisbane based Liam Birchley and she was ridden by Brisbane’s top gun, Stathi Katsidis.

Birchley has rightfully earned a highly respected reputation for his training expertise in general, but it is his eye for a two-year-old and the way he places them and manages their respective careers that gives Birchley a very special edge in the training ranks.

In spite of the fact that Australian purchases accounted for 32% of the sale turnover at the Karaka Sales last year, Sister Havana was the only runner to make the trans-Tasman trip to take up the Karaka Million challenge on Sunday.

The potential reward was obvious and as Sister Havana was good enough to claim it she can now boast stake earnings in excess of $500000. Not bad for a filly purchased just twelve months ago for NZ$40000.

Those who want to be particular like to question the quality of the field in these ‘closed’ sales races, but when you are planning to get the best out of a horse, both in terms of winning percentage and financial return, the quality of the field you are beating is largely irrelevant.

It might mean there is a question mark about how far the horse can progress from there but, as is the case with Sister Havana, most of the other two-year-olds still have plenty of catching up to do in the stakes race while Birchley can take his time finding the way forward for his Karaka Million winner.

It’s been a spectacular season for jockey Stathi Katsidis so far and no month has been bigger for the rider than January 2010.

Wins in the $2 million Magic Millions 2yo Classic aboard Military Rose and now the NZ$1 million Karaka Million with Sister Havana have come as a just reward for all of the hard work and dedication that Katsidis has shown since he returned to race riding in July after more than a year out of the saddle.

*By winning the Karaka Million, Birchley went one better than the result achieved by the stable in the 2009 version of the race. On that occasion the Birchley trained Sarge In Charge finished second to The Heckler.

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