Australia, Tamahere tries for win on third continent in Randwick stake
The well-traveled Tamahere won stakes in France, and at Belmont Park and Monmouth Park in 2020 and 2021.
Now racing on her third continent, Tamahere has not had the same measure of success in Australia, going winless in her first three starts in the country.
The losing streak has a chance to end in the $105,900 Winter Stakes at seven furlongs at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on Friday evening. A 6-year-old mare, Tamahere will start for the second time this year as part of a full field of 14.
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Now trained by Annabel Neasham, Tamahere finished seventh by 1 1/2 lengths and 11th by 3 1/4 lengths in two starts in Australia in June and July of 2022. Tamahere finished a troubled ninth by 2 1/2 lengths in her 2023 debut in the Civic Stakes at seven furlongs at Randwick on June 24, breaking slowly and racing in traffic in the stretch.
For the Winter Stakes, Tamahere will start from post 3 and will be ridden for the first time by Regal Bayliss.
A 6-year-old mare, Tamahere has won 4 of 17 starts. A minor stakes winner in France at a mile in June 2020, Tamahere won the Grade 2 Sands Point Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park in October of that year in her American debut for trainer Chad Brown.
In 2021, the highlights of Tamahere’s six-race campaign were a second in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland and a win in the minor Violet Stakes at Monmouth Park early that fall. She was listed as not sold for $525,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale in 2021, and has not raced in the United States since.
Tamahere was the 7-1 second choice in early betting on Thursday for the Winter Stakes.
Cotehele was the 3-1 favorite on the strength of a fifth-place finish by a length in the Civic Stakes. Cotehele tends to run as a stalker. He closed from well off the pace to win a lucrative handicap at 7 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Gardens in May, his only win in four starts this year.
The Winter Stakes is part of a 10-race program at Randwick that begins at 9 p.m. Eastern or 6 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.
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