| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2009
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It was exhilarating watching Kiwi Ingenuity leap clear of the chasing pack at the 300 metres in last Friday night's $100,000 PGG Wrightson NZ Breeder's Stakes. It was a clinical demolition of a high-class field of mares, for she won by four lengths which is a handsome margin in any company.
It was also amazing in some ways because she had not been quite herself before and after her win and loss at Ashburton, which was only a fortnight before this more important target. Even on Monday of last week, she had mucus round her nose which told trainer Robbie Holmes that there was a little to worry about but not much. "To be perfectly honest, when I took her out of the barn the day after Ashburton, there were signs she had a cold coming on. So we pulled some blood and the results of that told us she'd had an infection and was getting over it. There were no other signs. She always eats well and her work was great, and she always rehydrates herself. In the paddock, she just drops her head and relaxes."
The form of Kiwi Ingenuity has been picture-perfect this season - five starts for five first finishes, only to lose the one at Ashburton in the Enguiry Room. Holmes thinks he was hard-done by there. Otherwise, the score this season is 100%, with Holmes saying the strength she has developed between the end of her last campaign and the start of this has been the key to her tremendous step up.
"This time in, it has just been continuous improvement, and she has been peaking with every run. It has become pretty exciting, and the things she's done mean she doesn't have to prove anything. I wouldn't be afraid of taking her to Auckland, because she actually steers better that way round, but that won't be happening. And people ask us when will we be meeting Auckland Reactor, and I can't see that happening either, not for a while."
In the meantime, Kiwi Ingenuity is having a rest, with only the Harness Jewels being of interest for the rest of the season. She can have a month off, and have a race or two before then, or what she needs." Further from that, Holmes says it's unknown. "Hamish (Scott) is a breeder, and he doesn't like his mares to be over-raced. She is likely to do some racing next season, but to what extent we don't know. Hamish has three others in work, and there are three to come in, and one is a Falcon Seelster 2-year-old half sister to Kiwi Ingenuity who is big but I really like her."
And Holmes is clearly keen to get Kiwi Fantasy back, a horse he has a lot of time for. "It's a very nice team. Romper Stomper is due in, and Indy Village and CC's Mademoiselle are coming up nicely."
For the star of his success, Holmes owes it to Simon Pavlovich, a good friend, good horseman, and now living a good way away in Western Australia. "We worked together in a camping ground in Queensland fifteen years or so ago, and it was Simon who introduced me to Hamish. He started with a share in Kiwi Express, and it has gone from there."
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 18Feb09
YEAR: 2009
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If you didn't think "wow" after Kiwi Ingenuity's win in the Pelorus Classic at Waterlea, the word would've almost certainly popped into mind when she demolished the Premier Mares Championship field at Addington last Friday night. Because, quite simply, Kiwi Ingenuity was breathtaking.
Keen out of the gate despite her wide draw, as was the case at Blenheim, the Christian Cullen mare was finally given her head by trainer/driver Robbie Holmes rounding the bend into the front straight the first time. She exploded forward in search of the lead, with arch-rival Nearea Franco matching strides with her on her inside; by the time the pair had crossed to the marker pegs starting the last lap, Kiwi Ingenuity had won the battle for the lead. Everyone knew she had spent some serious petrol getting there though...such exertion has to take its toll eventually, so she'll come back to the field for sure.
No, not this girl. If anything Kiwi Ingenuity pushed the pedal down further along the back straight, and when Holmes pulled the plugs at the 350m mark he felt the mare surge yet again. Nearea Franco and the chasing pack never looked like bridging the gap in the run to the line, and at the post Kiwi Ingenuity was nearly two lengths clear as the clock stopped at a blistering 2:20.9 - a 1:56 mile rate over 1950 metres. The $50,000 Group 2 Caduceus Club of Canterbury event had been 'over' a long way from the finish.
"At Waterlea, I was just a passenger down the back - and it was the same again tonight," said Holmes, who's in awe of the mare himself. "She was a nice 3-year-old, but she has just got so big in the chest this time in...almost like a stallion. And she's just an amazing, free-wheeling front-runner," he said, remembering back to how the Southland Oaks and NZ Oaks last season were both won in such fashion. "She would sprint for a half if you asked her to, and probably cover it in fifty-four or fifty-five."
Bred by Hamish Scott, Dr Kim Lawson and their company Equine Investments Ltd, they are joined in the ownership of Kiwi Ingenuity by close friend Abby Smith. The 4-year-old mare's now won them over $213,000, the return from seven victories and four placings in 13 appearances. An enviable record in itself, it is even more menacing considering she has drawn the 'ace' only once - and all her other marbles have been seven or worse.
"I'm really pleased for Hamish," Holmes said. "Because he is a breeder, and only a breeder really. They had a few offers for this mare early on, but he's always been a 'keeper'; it's like she is part of the family.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 28Jan09
YEAR: 2008
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Robbie Holmes chanced his arm with an aggressive drive in the $150,000 Wayne Francis Memorial NZ Oaks. He made his run at the mile with Kiwi Ingenuity, following up stablemate Neat Treat, to sit second at the 1200m.
But he didn't stop there. On he went with the filly, serving it up to pacemaker Badlands Jewel and Mark Jones at the 1000m, and to his surprise he was allowed to cross and lead at the 800m. "I didn't really think Mark would hand up," he said. Not that Holmes thought it would matter much if he did or didn't. "She was jogging when she got there," he said.
Up in the stand, big Hamish Scott and his co-owner and partner Dr Kim Lawson could see hope turn to promise, and by the time Kiwi Ingenuity struck out for home at the 400m it had a look of reality. Holmes knew Kiwi Ingenuity had come to stay the course. Badlands Jewel was one of the first to throw it in, and none of the other favourites came into it as they should have. Angela's Dream closed strongly for second, and so did Natal Franco, making it a trifecta from the second line.
Holmes in very much Mr Busy, with frequent trips to Southland and places in between, and he has a team of 40 in work. Kiwi Ingenuity started her career on one such trip, racing at Nelson in January, where she had two starts and was unlucky. "I've had her right from the start, and she was a big girl then, and is 16.2h now. Early on there wasn't much of her, and although she started to show something in the summer, I had no plans for her."
But Hamish had. He wanted to win the Southland Oaks with the filly they'd bred, and Kiwi Ingenuity did that. "She just started to step up; her work kept getting better," Holmes said. They pressed on, her Southland win followed by a plucky third in the Nevele R Stud Fillies Final behind Badlands Jewel and Fight Fire With Fire. In the week leading up to the Oaks, the filly didn't take a backward step. Holmes was as confident as common sense would allow. "It was funny during the week when Graham" - Graham Pearson, the driver of Neat Feat - "said he'd probably keep me out when I came round." Pearson didn't have much say in that, however unlikely it might have been.
Kiwi Ingenuity was Holmes's first Oaks runner, and his second Group I training win, the other being with Romper Stomper in the NZ Trotting Free-For-All. Earlier driving ones have been with Lew Driver's pair, The Reckoning and Gretamaro.
This weekend, Holmes heads north to Cambridge with the daughter of Christian Cullen and her regular travelling companion Toscarni, who will race on Tuesday night. He will have higher hopes of success in this year's Jewels than he did with his lone drive in last year's extravaganza, which was Riverboat Royce.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 21May08
YEAR: 2010
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Grand racemare Kiwi Ingenuity has almost certainly finished her racing career. Trainer Robbie Holmes all but confirmed the retirement after she cut her off-side tendon sheath at the back of her fetlock joint near the finish of the Christchurch Casino New Zealand Cup at Addington on Tuesday.
The cut was "very deep" said Holmes. "It's been stitched and she will stay for a week at the Canterbury Equine Clinic," he said.
While Holmes has left the door ajar in case there is a longshot change in plan, part-owner Hamish Scott said the decision was "ninety-nine percent. She's done a wonderful job, and her career from here is really as a broodmare." Holmes said racing her again wasn't really a risk worth taking. She had a tenative booking to Art Major a year ago, so I'm pretty sure that's what will happen now."
Holmes was confident of running into a place in the Cup until she started going "slightly rough" halfway up the passing lane. "I thought I'd run a hole the way we were going. She paced the last bend very nicely, then went rough for no reason at all. She got organised, and then did it again." Holmes said she caused the injury with her second break.
Kiwi Ingenuity won 11 of her 27 starts, and with 8 placings earned $523,200. Her notable wins included the Southland Oaks, the Group 1 Wayne Francis Memorial New Zealand Oaks, the Pelorus Classic, the Group 2 Caduceus Premier Mares Classic, the Group 1 PGG Wrightson Breeders' Stakes, the 4YO Diamond at the Harness Jewels in 1:52.1 and the Group 1 Rosslands Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park after her fourth in the Miracle Mile behind Monkey King, Smoken Up and Karloo Mick.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 11Nov2010