Magice weaves magic at Matamata

[Wandering Eyes]

Exciting two-year-old Magice replicated the early feats of his Group One-winning relative with an impressive maiden victory at Matamata on Wednesday.

The son of Savabeel is a full-brother to Noverre, who was victorious at his second raceday appearance before scaling the heights of a dazzling win in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) in 2021, before joining his champion sire on the stallion roster at Waikato Stud.

Magice is the fourth foal out of Magic Dancer, a Rip Van Winkle mare who won the Gr.3 2YO Classic (1200m) and was later purchased by Chittick Investments Ltd as a broodmare prospect.

Matamata trainer Glenn Old was entrusted with the care of the well-bred colt, initially for pre-training with an Australian future in mind.

“I got him mainly to do the fundamentals with him and a bit of pre-training, but Garry (Chittick) decided to keep him in New Zealand instead of sending him to Melbourne just yet, which was on the cards,” Old said.

Magice debuted at Rotorua last month and was beaten only by Super Photon, an impressive son of Super Seth that claimed the Listed 2YO Stakes (1400m) at Te Rapa last Saturday at his second appearance.

Starting a $2.90 favourite, Magice was tipped to go one better at Matamata, and he flew an outside barrier to join first-starter Pinky Pie at the head of the field, while racing ungenerously down the back straight under Jasmine Fawcett.

Magice led the juveniles into the straight greenly, but once he straightened, the colt let down strongly and kicked away from Whiskey ‘N Roses by 1-¾ lengths, the latter having improvement to come off a tidy debut.

“He raced a bit fiercely early and looks like he still has a fair bit to learn, but the further the race went, he flattened out nicely,” Old said.

“Jasmine is my stable rider, so she knew him well and rides all of his work. We decided to be positive from the draw and ride him handy.

“When they challenged him, he found a good kick.”

Old indicated that Magice may have another run in his current preparation, while a short let-up prior to a spring campaign was also a possibility.

“Going forward, this is definitely a step in the right direction, but I’m not sure what we’ll do next,” he said.

“I’ll talk to Gary tomorrow, but he may have a short let-up to get ready for the spring, or possibly have one more run.”

The Waikato Stud colours featured in the winner’s circle later on the card, with homebred filly Sweetpea taking out the Entain – NZB Insurance Pearl Series (1400m) for trainer Stephen Marsh and apprentice Triston Moodley.

Another progeny of Savabeel, Sweetpea is a half-sister to multiple Group Three-performer Pretty To Sea and Group Two-performer Bonny O’Reilly.

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