Whiskey Neat, the latest Stakes-winning addition to the portfolio of Darley stallion Denman, has been declared fit and ready to face his next challenge in the Karaka Million Two-Year-Old feature at Ellerslie, NZ, on Saturday 26 January.
Trainer Tony Pike is satisfied Whiskey Neat can handle what promises to be the most demanding assignment of his short career after the colt galloped under race rider Leith Innes at Ellerslie.
‘’Whiskey Neat dropped in behind Indecision and Leith hooked him out at the top of the straight and he finished it off well. Indecision is flying at the moment so he was a good horse to work with,” told NZ Thoroughbred Racing.
Whiskey Neat, the Karaka Million favourite, announced himself with a 10-length debut win in an Otaki maiden in late November and then jumped in class and distance to win over the 1,200m of the G3 Eclipse Stakes at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
Saturday’s race holds Restricted Listed status being restricted to horses sold at the Karaka sale and is one of the richest events in New Zealand, carrying as the name suggests, NZ$1 million in prizemoney.
Pike hasn’t made firm plans for Whiskey Neat’s immediate future, other than to say the gelding will ultimately race in Hong Kong, aiming to follow in the footsteps of the John Size trained gelding Hot King Prawn whose current record is 11 starts for nine wins amassing HK$12,805,300 in prizemoney.
Whiskey Neat is the third winner from three foals to race from the winning Viscount mare Ouija, who was bred and raced by Sheikh Mohammed.
Ouija is out of Seances, whose eight winners from 10 to race include the recent city-class winners Roosevelt and Haunted as well as the Stakes winner's Sessions and Renaissance, who all carried Sheikh Mohammed’s colours.
Denman, who stood the most recent southern hemisphere season at Kelvinside, NSW, has three lots entered in the Inglis Classic Sale in Sydney in February and four in the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale in March.
