VIVACIOUS victorious at Riccarton 4th March – her 5th career win
Resuming with a terrific performance, Vivacious (5 m Dundeel – Vivi Veloce, by More Than Ready) won the $25,000 Daphne Bannan Memorial Rating 75 1200 metres on 4 March at Riccarton. Now the winner of five races to 1400 metres, Vivacious was unpressured while running home well for third when trialling on 3 February at Timaru, and paraded in great order for the fresh-up assignment.
Ridden by Bruno Queiroz, who extended his record to two wins and third from four starts on the mare, Vivacious was back in running, ninth crossing onto the course proper (400m), and remained nearer the rail before mounting a big finish to win impressively. It was not the first time Vivacious had delivered such a strong finish, as she produced a similar performance to snatch victory over 1400 metres last season at Ashburton.
“She’s a very nice horse and I know her well,” Queiroz said. “She was very fresh, but strong today, and I was able to sit behind a fast pace. She relaxed well, I saw horses going to the outside, there was plenty of room on the inside and I knew she would fly home over the last 200 metres. It was great effort by the trainers and the staff that work with her to have her ready to win fresh-up, and for the owners too.”
On footing upgraded from Heavy8 to Soft7 before the race, she ran 1200 metres in 1:10.9, last 600m in 34.9 (approx.), winning by one and three-quarter lengths, and paid handsomely ($8.20 & $2.50) on the NZ TAB tote.
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Click HERE to see replay of the closing stages
“It was a good ride of Bruno’s to save ground on the inside, where the other riders felt it was more testing, and a very good first-up effort by the mare to win so well,” said Mark Walker, training partner with Sam Bergerson. “She’s putting together a really good race record, with five wins from 20 starts, and always great to have another winner for John & Jessica Galvin and the Fortuna Racing owners.”
VIVACIOUS – 5th career win – Riccarton 4th March 2026 – Bruno Queiroz aboard
Assistant trainer Hunter Durrant, on course, said: “She was really impressive winning at Ashburton, a while ago, and she’s pretty smart when the race goes to plan and she gets it right. We said to Bruno to position her wherever she was happy and it was good ride to cut the corner. She’s a mare that takes a lot of hard work by the team. They do a great job with her and she was spot on today.”
Owned by Fortuna Vivacious Syndicate (Mgr: John Galvin), an Ownership group of 55 individuals, she was purchased for $60,000 by Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM and Fortuna Racing at the 2022 NZ Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, from the draft of Riverrock Farm.
“It was hard to be overly confident for the first 900 metres of the race, when she was well back and Bruno was urging her along, but the field scouted to the outside and he ducked down to the inside,” Galvin said. “She was pretty strong and put in a couple of big strides to gap them after being given a shakeup at the 120m. I was a little bit nervous about the ground because she doesn’t like it too heavy, but she’s handled soft ground well before. She’s fashioning a reasonable record, now, and the word from the stable was that, while not previously the greatest doer, she has been eating really well and her condition is as good as it’s ever been.
“While the stable thought she might need the run, I thought she rated a good each-way chance and she paid good money too. We’ll see what the trainers decided to do next. She’ll be up to Open Handicap grade, but it might be an opportunity for her to collect a bit of black type when competing in stakes races this autumn.”
Vivavious and her winning connections celebrate at Riccarton
Vivacious is by remarkable racehorse Dundeel (High Chaparral), who stamped himself as well above average from the day he blew his two-year-old rivals off the track on debut over 1200 metres at Ellerslie. The six-time Group One winner gained titles on both sides of the Tasman: Champion 3YO and Horse of the Year in New Zealand, and Champion Middle Distance horse in Australia. He ended his racing career winning the $4m Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr. 1, 2000m) and his progeny have been highly sought after. So much so, that Dundeel created a stud career on par with his racing deeds, and along with Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM, and Te Akau Racing stable star mare Imperatriz (I Am Invincible), he joined a total of 10 inductees to the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame last year.
The dam side of pedigree of Vivacious is also particularly rich. Incredibly, world renowned dam-sire More Than Ready (Southern Halo) is one of only six stallions to have sired in excess of 200 stakes winners, with 26 Group One winners among them. He has been Champion Sire in both hemispheres, proved an outstanding sire of sires and going from strength-to-strength as a broodmare sire.
Vivacious carries a bloodline cross to immortal sire Northern Dancer. Her dam, Vivi Veloce, was a Group Three winner over 1200 metres in Australia, and grand-dam Royal Sash (Royal Academy) also won at Group Three level among five wins to 1400 metres.
Vivacious was strapped by Leah Norvall.
Pictures by Race Images