Multiple Stakes winning mare Congrats And Roses comes from the initial crop of Vinery shuttler Congrats and she is typical of the breed going back to back in the Canterbury Distaff Championship (1700m).
Congrats And Roses was one of her sire’s first winners back in June 2010 and she has returned as a three, four and five year-old to bank further black-type cheques for her owner-breeder Bruce Malkerson.
Congrats And Roses (5m Congrats – Gate Swinger by Wayne’s Crane) was second in this race in 2011, went one better last year when she blitzed her rivals by 11 lengths and made it back-to-back Championships by 7 lengths on Sunday.
Sent off a short-priced favourite, Congrats and Roses had things her own way in front and then shook off the challenges of Blues Edge (Obstacle) and Badge of Glory (Badge of Silver). There was another 7 lengths between the minors.
It brought up a weekend double for the Malkersons and trainer McLean Robertson after the earlier win of Somerset Swinger (Gazebo). “My wife Mary was there for both of their births,’’ Bruce Malkerson recalled. “She raised them both.”
The Canterbury Park Championships began in 1992 and this year’s crowd of 15,025 was the second largest attendance in its history.
Congrats (A P Indy) is standing at Vinery this year and his first Australian yearlings will sell at the 2014 majors.
There have been 135 individual winners at a better than 70% strike-rate in his first three USA bred crops. Congrats has sired another 6 winners among his fourth crop of two year-olds so far this season topped by last week’s LR Bird Of Pay Stakes winner Courgarville.
