| HORSES |
YEAR: 2022
Champion trainer Mark Purdon wasn’t holding back in his praise for Millwood Nike when the superstar filly remained unbeaten at Addington on Friday.
Our best juvenile filly cemented that claim by overcoming a second line draw to smash her rivals in the $138,000 Dunstan Feeds Sires’ Stakes Fillies Final.
That made it seven wins from as many starts and the hot tempo played into her hands as her strength became telling factor in the Group 1.
Purdon says that strength, and just about everything else about Millwood Nike, makes her as good as any juvenile filly he and his All Stars partners have trained.
“We have had some very good ones of course but at this stage of her career she would be as good as any of them,” he offered.
“She has it all. She is strong, very fast and has a great will to win.
“What she did today was very, very impressive.”
Purdon has been associated with great juvenile fillies his whole career dating back to driving ones like Scuse Me in the early 1990s right through to Amazing Dream and True Fantasy in the last two years.
His greatest ever female pacer Adore Me actually didn’t race at two so can’t be rated on her juvenile ability but it is hard to make an argument any of the other freshman fillies have been any better than Millwood Nike.
She will now head to the Ace Of Diamonds at the new Grand Prix meeting at Addington on December 4 before she faces a fast turnaround to start her three-year-old season.
While juvenile fillies used to, on the whole, finish their season at the Jewels in June and have no major Group 1 target until Christmas, Millwood Nike won’t be able to get to the paddock until mid December and will need to be turned around a lot quicker for the first three years features early in the New Year.
“I think she is the type of filly who will handle that if we go down that path,” says Purdon.
Millwood Nike rated 1:54.7 for the 1980m and while all the honours were with there was plenty of courage from leader Kahlua Flybye, who true to co-trainer Steve Telfer’s words before the race held the lead and ran them hard.
Credit: Michael Guerin HRNZ News 11 Nov 2022
YEAR: 2022
Next level is the only way to describe Millwood Nike following her record-breaking win in the Ace Of Diamonds at Addington on Grand Prix Day.
The brilliant filly’s performance was so good, it just about had to be seen to be believed.
On a national-record-breaking speed, the star Mark Purdon and Hayden sat parked throughout before breezing by her rivals at the top of the straight as if that sizzling pace had meant nothing to her.
Clearly a champion of her year and unbeaten in eight starts, Millwood Nike is simply made of different material to the average horse.
And Mark Purdon thinks it is the filly’s top-two inches that sets her apart.
“She has just got all of the attributes, she didn’t take anything out of herself sitting parked.”
“That is very important when you are racing at this level and things don’t quite go your way.”
“We did think it might work out that way, that she would be left parked, but she relaxed nicely and was able to quicken when I asked her to.”
Sunday’s win was Millwood’s Nike’s third at Group One level following her record breaking win in the Sires Stakes Fillies Championship last month.
Though she was clearly there before the race, her stunning victory clearly pushed Milwood Nike higher into rarefied air, occupied only by some of New Zealand’s greatest ever two-year-old fillies.
“Eight for eight at the end of the year, to run a national record at the end of the year and the way she did it,” Purdon said.
“She is the best filly.”
Aardiebytheseaside and Kahlua Flybye filled the placings behind Millwood Nike as they did in the Sires Stakes Fillies Final.
Aardiebytheseaside worked to the lead, setting up Sunday’s national-record breaking time before fighting on bravely.
The Steve and Amanda Telfer trained filly still lead passing the 200m before she was reeled in late by the winner.
In any other year, the filly may have been a two-time Group One winner, but she has come along at the same time as a champion filly in Millwood Nike.
The winner stopped the clock in the Ace Of Diamonds in a 2-20.3 time for 1980m.
In doing so, Millwood Nike broke the 2-21.2 national record time she set in the Sires Stakes Fillies Championship on Show Day.
Millwood Nike is raced by rugby league identities Frank and Shane Endacott, and Stephen Byrne, Steve Thompson and Bruce Irvine, following her purchase at the National Yearling Sales.
Credit: By Jonny Turner