LA looks like having two graduates from its 2021 Karaka Book 1 draft line up in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby following Desert Lightning’s (Pride of Dubai – Isstoora by High Chaparral) pictured, deserved success in the 2100m Group 2 Avondale Guineas at Pukekohe on Saturday.
Desert Lightning, who was bought for $150,000 by his trainer Peter Williams for Sarah Green and Ger Beemsterboer, finished runner-up, beaten a half head, in the NZ 2000 Guineas and 3rd in the Karaka 3YO Classic. The Pride of Dubai gelding is likely to be joined in what is shaping up as one of the best New Zealand Derby fields in a number of years by Cruz Missile, a winner of the Listed Gingernuts Salver and $160,000 purchase by Bruce Perry from LA’s 2021 Karaka Book 1 draft.
The Avondale Guineas win is a great result for Wes and Daniella Van De Scheer who bred Desert Lightning and own his dam, the unraced High Chaparral mare Isstoora. Wes and Danielle have a fair bit to look forward to with the mare having a Per Incanto yearling colt, who has passed in at last month’s Karaka sale, while the mare has a weanling Per Incanto filly and is back in foal to Per Incanto.
Racing at Pukekohe also saw the Per Incanto 3YO Mascarinto atone for an unlucky 4th placing in the Group 3 Almanzor Trophy at his previous recent start to win impressively over 1200m.
