Fortuna Four Year Old Racemare DANCARINA makes it two career wins with a powerful performance at Riccarton 3rd September

In what was a very successful day for the Fortuna Racing Team in New Zealand, presenting three runners on the day for two wins and a third, the 4yo Racemare, DANCARINA (Sebring – Dance For Me), produced an exceptional result finishing from well back in the field at the junction to win the Rating 65 1000m event down the Riccarton chute. Ridden by Te Akau Stable and 2021/22 Champion Apprentice, Joe Kamarrudin, “Bianca” as she is known by at the stable had drawn barrier 8 of 9 runners in the event, Joe elected to go back from the draw and as the field arrived at the crossing 600 metres from home, she was still 10 or 12 lengths off the leaders. However, mounting an inexorable run down the middle of the track, she quickly gathered the field in and despite laying in over the closing stages, went to the line clear by a long neck in the time of 57.07 for the 1000 metre trip

Click HERE to see the race replay

DANCARINA was having just her 4th race day start, producing a 3rd on debut at Matamata in January 2022, then a strong win at Ruakaka in February and another 3rd at Ellerslie in March before being put aside for further maturity and development.

Te Akau Trainer, Mark Walker, was on course to oversee the mare’s preparation. “That was a great result, but to be honest, I was expecting her to perform well today, her work has been very good and she trialed well at Avondale – she is not the soundest mare in the world and does need careful management, but she has a lot of talent and is more than capable of earning some black type for her Ownership Group. Well done to John Galvin and his Fortuna Team, that was their 2nd win today and they have a lot of nice horses coming through in the next few weeks.”

DANCARINA – 2nd career win – Riccarton 3rd Sept 2022 – Joe Kamaruddin aboard

Fortuna’s John Galvin, watching from his Hamilton home was enjoying his day, having already seem his debut 2yo runner, RUBICON CROSSING, win at Wanganui two hours earlier, “That was breathtaking to watch, she seemed to be a long way off them over the 1000m trip, but I could sort of sense the way she was traveling that she was going to unleash and so it proved – it was a heady ride by Joe, who is riding in great form. Well done to Mark Walker for the way he has handled DANCARINA, she has had soundness issues, but he has managed her well. It was a last minute decision to send her to the South Island to race, but one thing I have learned after 2o uears of working with Mark Walker, is to always trust his judgement – he is very rarely wrong.”

 Dancarina returns to scale with “Smiling Joe” Kamaruddin aboard – Katija Cherie is leading her in

DANCARINA was acquired by David Ellis on behalf of Fortuna at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast January Sale for A$100,000 from the draft of Widden Stud. She is raced by the Fortuna Dancarina Syndicate, an ownership group comprising 60 individuals