31 Aug 2023Talisker’s juvenile form seemingly placed him in a class of his own when he resumed at Riccarton and so it proved with the three-year-old a cut above his rivals.
The exciting son of our young stallion Embellish was caught wide early before pressing on to lead and lengthened stride impressively in the run home to score over 1200 metres for trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson and rider Niranjan Parmar.
“It was a good effort because he did a bit of work to get across (to lead) and I thought he was hugely impressive, after doing so much work, the way he strode away to win,” said Walker.
“We’ve got a very high opinion of the stallion Embellish, and this bloke will only get better as he gets over more distance.”
Talisker, who stopped the clock in an impressive time of 1:09.10, displayed a high level of ability as a two-year-old despite remaining a maiden. He was third on debut last season behind subsequent Karaka Million winner Tokyo Tycoon and runner-up next time out in the G2 Eclipse Stakes to Trobriand, who went on to post three stakes placings.
Nominated for the G1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas, Talisker is being kept safe on the fourth line of betting at $12 in the market for the Karaka Million 3YO.
He was bred by Craig Grammer and Paul Stopforth out of the winning Redoute’s Choice mare Glenkinchie and purchased by Te Akau chief David Ellis for $70,000 at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale where he was offered by Landsdowne Park.