New Zealand, February 7 – Golden Slipper winner Catbird notched his eleventh stakes-winner in New Zealand on Tuesday when the Graeme Rogerson trained mare Vercors saluted in the Listed Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge Breeders Stakes over 1600 metres at Wairarapa.
A home-bred for the Vela family, she scored by three-quarters of a length and will now be set for further Black Type engagements including the Group One New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders Stakes over 1600 metres at Te Aroha on April 7.
Vercors made it a winning hat-trick with her first stakes success and boasts an overall record of four wins and six placings from 15 starts.
She is the first foal of the Zabeel mare Alpine, a half-sister to Group One winner Lord Ted and Group One placed Manawa King.
Looking at a slightly broader picture, the Catbird/ Sir Tristram (IRE) cross has been a highly successful one producing five of his 11 stakes-winners – Cats Fun, Diego Garcia, Jumlah, God of War (Macau) and now Vercors.
The Catbird stock will be high on the list for most buyers at the 2007 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale starting this Saturday with 15 outstanding youngsters to choose from including Lot 392 to be offered by Yarraman Park, a brown colt from stakes-placed Fabled (NZ).
