Kovalica announced himself as a potential star stayer of the future when he produced an emphatic display to win the May 27 Queensland Derby (G1) at Eagle Farm Racecourse, and in the process became the fourth elite-level winner for Waikato Stud’s often underrated stallion Ocean Park.
Having taken out the Queensland Guineas (G2) April 29, the gelding went into the group 1 Saturday having finished third in last weekend’s Doomben Cup (G1), an ambitious path his trainer Chris Waller was forced to tread after a minor setback resulted in the 3-year-old missing the Derby’s traditional lead-up race, the Rough Habit Plate (G3) a fortnight ago.
However, the quick back-up seemed to have no ill effects on Kovalica as he traveled strongly under James McDonald throughout the contest, eventually posting a facile two-length win over Fame. Stroke Of Luck was the same distance away in third.
In winning the race, the 3-year-old Kovalica handed Waller his third Queensland Derby triumph, having landed it first with Hawkspur in 2013, before snaring the race for a second time eight years later with Kukeracha. The latter gave the trainer a brilliant start to the Queensland Derby Day card at Eagle Farm, when he duly delivered another stakes win in the Premier’s Cup (G3).
With his latest group 1 in the bag, Waller’s total elite-level winning tally stands at an extraordinary 146. Twelve of those wins were recorded this season; a figure which sees him move one clear of James Cummings, who has 11, while Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have ten.
Waller said he was always confident the Doomben Cup plan would not thwart Kovalica’s hopes of adding a Queensland Derby to his CV.
“There was a hiccup two weeks ago, but we didn’t panic, gave him that extra run and once he hit the front I thought he was fit enough, he will be right,” Waller said.
“It was a faultless ride and obviously barrier draws make things so much easier. James cleverly got out in the three-wide line at about the half-mile, because he had done nothing up until that stage, so he was entitled to get out and make his own luck.”
Kovalica’s triumph also leaves McDonald one win shy of 80 career majors.
“He’s a really good horse. To show a turn of foot over those trips is something else,” McDonald said. “It doesn’t matter where you are in a race, they make their own luck with the good horses and he did that really well.
“There wasn’t a moment of fear in that race because nothing went wrong. It was poetry in motion, he galloped away really well.”
This was Kovalica’s third stakes victory having broken through at black-type level for the first time in the Grand Prix Stakes (G3) last December. This most recent win sees his total career earnings soar past the $1 million mark.
The gelding was a NZ$110,000 (US$66,506, NZ$1=US$0.60) buy for Mulcaster Bloodstock from the Curraghmore draft at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale in 2021. He is the second foal and first winner out of Makfi mare Vitesse.
Kovalica is one of 20 stakes winners for Waikato Stud-based sire Ocean Park, who will stand the 2023 season for a fee of NZ$30,000 ($18,137).
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