Karaka Graduates Run Quinella Again in Eclipse

For the second time this season, Karaka graduates Gift Of Power (NZ) (Power) and Hasahalo (NZ) (Savabeel) finished first and second in a two-year-old stakes race – but this they were the other way around.

Gift Of Power narrowly beat Hasahalo in the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m) at Trentham last month, but Hasahalo turned the tables in Sunday’s $70,000 Group 3 Barneswood Farm Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie.

Ridden by Sam Spratt for trainer Stephen McKee, Hasahalo was clearly last in the seven-horse field but produced an explosive turn of foot in the straight to charge down the outside of the track and edge out Gift Of Power by a head.

“It was good to turn the tables on Gift Of Power today,” winning rider Sam Spratt said. “We had an awkward draw and I decided to go back. She’s got a massive turn of foot.”

Hasahalo was bred by Waikato Stud in partnership with Isabelle O’Shea – wife of champion Australian trainer John.

Offered by Waikato Stud at the 2016 Karaka Premier Sale, Hasahalo was bought by Go Racing for $110,000. She has now had a win and a placing from three starts, earning $61,000 in prize-money.

Waikato Stud will offer a full-brother to Hasahalo, a Savabeel colt, as Lot 193 at the 2017 Premier Sale.

The Eclipse Stakes runner-up Gift Of Power, who was bought for $180,000 at the Premier Sale, has had four starts for three wins and a placing and has earned more than $106,000 in stakes.