5 Feb 2023Quality staying mare Aquacade was promoted to a $4.50 favourite for the G2 Auckland Cup following a dominant performance at Tauranga.
Our homebred daughter of Dundeel was an impressive winner of the Dunstan Feeds Championship Final at Te Rapa on New Year’s Day and at Tauranga she added an open handicap victory over 2100 metres to her record.
The four-year-old will now be further stepped up in grade to stakes level by trainer Lance Noble.
Aquacade will head to the Gr.2 Avondale Cup on February 18 at Pukekohe as the ideal lead-up to the set weights and penalties Auckland Cup on March 11 at the same venue.
“If you win the Avondale Cup, you’re ballot exempt and its penalty free for the Auckland Cup,” Noble said.
“She’s in good form and going to get in with the right weight, so we just need a bit of luck heading into the next two races.”
In her latest success, Aquacade was caught wide early in a small field before rider Warren Kennedy eased her back to second last and one off the rail.
She improved near the fence across the top to hit the front at the top of the straight and romped away with a minimum of effort to win by 6.5l.
Aquacade has now won five of her 11 starts and is a daughter of the imported Sea The Stars mare Forest Of Seas and a pedigree page that boasts the likes of European Group winners Self Defense, Sea Of Heartbreak and Puncher Clynch.
Forest Of Seas produced a colt by Embellish in 2021 before missing the following season.