Festival Sale Graduate Swissta (NZ) Wins Guineas

Karaka Festival Sale graduate Swissta (NZ) (Swiss Ace) earned almost three times his purchase price in one hit when he won Sunday’s $100,000 Group 2 Jamieson Park Great Northern Guineas (1600m) at Ellerslie.

Trainer Richard Collett paid just $24,000 to buy Swissta out of the Westbury Stud draft at the 2015 Festival Sale. On Sunday he picked up his third win in a row and boosted his prize-money earnings above $78,000.

Ridden by Collett’s daughter Alysha, Swissta sat outside the early leader Tiptronic (NZ) (O’Reilly) before outfighting that rival down the straight and scoring by a head.

“We bought him cheap at the third-tier sale at Karaka and we train and part-own him along with a great group of owners,” Richard Collett said. “He’s a really nice horse and he’s beaten older horses in his last two starts – in a maiden race and in a good Rating 65 race here at Ellerslie.

“I was pretty confident coming into today. He’s a horse who can relax beautifully while he’s racing close to the speed.”

Both of the Guineas placegetters are also graduates of Karaka sales. Runner-up Tiptronic cost $100,000 at the 2015 Premier Sale, while third-placed Jon Snow (NZ) (Iffraaj) was bought for $65,000 at the 2015 Select Sale.