More Than Ready filly Serious Satire has laid down the gauntlet to her NZ 1000 Guineas rivals with a breathtaking finish to the G3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) at Hastings on the 3rd of October.
The Stephen Marsh trained three year-old swooped in the final stages to defeat front-runner Strata Lady by a half-length running away. The NZ TAB immediately firmed her into a $3.50 favourite for the G1 NZ 1000 Guineas (1600m) on November 14.
A beautiful-looking filly with a striking white blaze, she is the 148th stakes winner by Vinery champion More Than Ready.
Serious Satire had already shown that she was highly talented with a win over Group 1 filly Battle Time at Hastings in August but she took another step up with a very special performance on Saturday. “We’ve always thought a lot of her and that was an amazing finish,” Marsh said. “She’s not a 1200m horse and is just going to get better and better over more ground.
“She will go to the Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa on Labour Day and then we’re off to Christchurch.”
The Gold Trail was postponed from a fortnight ago and that proved a welcome delay for Serious Satire. “She had a bit of a viral issue,” Marsh revealed. “We decided to just back off a bit and that gave us a lot more time to make sure she was bang on.”
Serious Satire is a homebred for David Paykel and he raced her dam Zarzuela (Zabeel) to a Group 2 victory in the Great Northern Guineas. She was also placed in the 2010 New Zealand Oaks.
“That was a huge effort,” jockey Danielle Johnson said. “She was left a bit flat-footed at the half-mile but really accelerated in the straight and knows where the finish line is.”
More Than Ready is covering his latest southern book at Vinery for a $66,000 (inc GST) service fee.
