Pentire's granddaughter Pennyweka another hit for New Zealand as she completes rare Oaks double

While European interest at Randwick on Saturday centred on Dubai Honour - who won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes - and Alcohol Free (mid-division in the Queen of the Turf), undeniably notable too was the extension of New Zealand’s domination of this year’s three-year-old staying ranks.

It came through the Jim Wallace-trained Pennyweka, who followed up her recent victory in the New Zealand Oaks with an ultra-dominant triumph in the Australian Oaks. 

A daughter of Rich Hill Stud’s shuttler Satono Aladdin, Pennyweka showed a potent turn of foot to defeat So Dazzling by a length and three-quarters, with Premise another three lengths further back in third. 

Pennyweka became the first horse to do the New Zealand Oaks-Australian Oaks double since Bonneval in 2017, while winning jockey Damian Lane was landing the race for the second consecutive year. 

After emerging from her last-start Group 1 victory in fine fettle, Wallace decided to have a crack at the Australian Oaks, paying the A$22,000 (£11,800/€13,350) supplementary fee. 

Wallace said: “She told me. I was convinced that after the Oaks she’d be ready for it. She came out on the Monday, trotted up and the girl who rides her all the time said to me, ‘She feels better today than she did on Friday.’

“She carried on that week and did nothing wrong so we thought, ‘Oh well, we’ll roll the dice’, and here we are.”

Pennyweka is raced by The Galloping Wekas Jazweka Syndicate, an ownership group organised by Wallace’s brother and sister-in-law. 

Wallace said: “There are 70 in it and 40 of them are here today having the time of their lives. A lot of them have got only one per cent, two per cent, but they can walk into the pub on a Saturday night and say, ‘My horse won the Oaks’, which is great.”

It has been a lucrative few months in Australia for raiders from across the Tasman Sea, with Pennyweka joining the likes of Legarto and Prowess, who both tasted Group 1 success earlier in the season. 

Pennyweka is out of the unraced Pentire mare Threepence, a half-sister to Group 1 winner Titch. 

In 2020, Threepence produced a colt by Time Test who was bought for NZ$50,000 (£25,200/€28,500) at the New Zealand National Yearling Sale earlier this year, and the mare was covered by the same stallion last breeding season. 

Like his barnmate Proisir, Satono Aladdin has enjoyed a career-defining season with his runners on the track. He is the sire of four stakes winners in total, including recent Group 1 Sistema Stakes winner Tokyo Tycoon. 

Also at Randwick on Saturday, Darley shuttler Harry Angel gained his fifth individual stakes winner courtesy of Tom Kitten in the Listed Fernhill Mile. 

Harry Angel: fifth individual stakes winner on SaturdayCredit: Darley

Last seen finishing fifth in the Sires’ Produce Stakes, the two-year-old colt stormed from the back of the field to beat Make A Call by quarter of a length. Globally, Harry Angel has sired 34 winners from 81 starters, with three of those winners coming from his first Australian crop. His other stakes winners are Al Dasim, Arkansas Kid, Iconic Moment and Proverb.

Across the Tasman at Riverton, So You Think gained his 50th individual stakes winner when six-year-old daughter Asathought went one better than when runner-up in last year’s Listed Riverton Cup. 

Unsighted since finishing among the backmarkers in the Wellington Cup in January, she defeated Kilowatt by half a length. Bred and raced by Willie and Karen Calder, Asathought is out of their stakes-winning Group 1-placed Zabeel mare Asavant, making her a half-sister to the nine-time Group 1 winner Avantage.

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