It was a successful weekend at the track for Curraghmore graduates with three runners recording victories.
Nerve not Verve (Shocking x Bilancia) was the first to score when successful at Moonee Valley on Friday night. The four-year-old mare was bred by Graeme Hunt, co-breeder of Efficient, and purchased by Bruce Perry out of Curraghmore’s 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock select draft for $60,000.
Like Tofane, she is another Curraghmore graduate delivering for the Ballymore Stable. Nerve not Verve also continued a good run of results for Rich Hill Stud’s resident sire Shocking.
Connections were confident Nerve Not Verve would produce a strong performance and was not disappointed after jockey Michael Dee made the most of a nice draw to win the Fillies & Mares BM70 Hcp (2040m).
“She got to the front well and controlled it and put them away with ease in the end,” Stable representative Jack Turnbull said.
“Winning here tonight is a huge tick. We have got her to a level of fitness where we can keep her ticking over as I said pre-race where we can just keep her in the pool, space her gallops, keep her off the pony and she seems to like and appreciate that sort of training.
“We’ll keep doing that and hopefully we can be back here in the future.”
The run of the weekend came via two-year-old colt Not An Option (Not A Single Doubt x Chintz) who lived up to the pre-race hype winning the Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m) at Trentham on Saturday with a powerful finishing burst.
Bred by Aquis Farm, Not An Option was purchased by trainer Tony Pike out of Curraghmore’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock draft after Gordon Cunningham and Mark Baker of Hallmark Stud secured an interest in the youngster with a view to brining him to Karaka as a yearling.
Not An Option now sits at the top of the Karaka Million 2YO qualifying ladder for his large group of owners that include well-known local breeding operations Waikato Stud and Haunui Farm along with Raffles Racing.
The third winner of the weekend was the John’ O’Shea-trained Private Thoughts (Snitzel x Tip The Wink) who broke her maiden at Hawkesbury on Sunday.
The lightly raced three-year-old filly was bred by Nearco Stud and purchased by Champion Thoroughbreds out of Curraghmore’s 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock draft for $120,000.
Private Thoughts ran third on debut as a two-year-old before kicking off her three-year-old campaign at Kembla Grange when running fifth in November. Sunday’s run was just her third start and she looks like she will progress nicely from there.
