The Lars Pearson owned-and-bred galloper Upsala defied all in the Listed Northland Breeders Stakes (2YO, 1200m) on Saturday.
Rated a $6.80 win chance by the NZ TAB, Upsala took control of proceedings after 300m and from this point on beseeched his rivals to catch him if they could.
They couldn’t, as it would turn out.
Under with a confident ride from Paul Taylor, the 56kg top weight hit the wire with 1-1/2 lengths to spare from Cool Storm (One Cool Cat - Flying Free), who held Mygoodgrace (Royal Academy - Good Faith) out of second position by three-quarters-of-a length.
Upsala handled the slow rated track in style clocking 1:10.7 for the 1200m sprint quicker than the 3YO’s ran in the first race on the Ruakaka card.
Prepared by Kenny and Lisa Rae, the smart son of Oratorio, has lifted his rating to 76 courtesy of a career yielding two wins and three placings from eight outings.
With black-type print and $40,364 in earnings now achieved, Upsala is proving quite an ambassador for his now deceased Mark of Esteem dam Cinquilla, who has had just the one horse to the races.
Cinquilla was a winner herself over 2600m in France and hails directly from a proven black-type family boasting the Gr.1 winners Darshaan, Darara, Dar Re Mi and Daliapour.
With two more foals to come through the system out of the mare, with representatives in NZ comprising of a 2008 Bachelor Duke colt and a filly by High Chaparral.
Upsala is by Coolmore’s triple Group one winning Oratorio (Danehill - Mahrah by Vaguely Noble) , and is his second stakes winner in New Zealand that includes his Gr.1 winning daughter, Banchee. The listed win also lifts his overall stakes tally to six with his oldest southern conceived progeny rising three-year-olds.
Oratorio returns to Coolmore this spring on a fee of $22,000 (inc GST).
