Atishu to Give Rivals a Cold

Two weeks on from one of the most dominant performances in the 20-year history of the New Zealand Bloodstock Southern Filly of the Year Series, Atishu (NZ) (Savabeel) will attempt to clinch the title in Saturday’s fourth and final leg – the $50,000 Listed New Zealand Bloodstock Warstep Stakes (2000m) at Riccarton. The super-talented filly was a $260,000 purchase by Go Racing from Waikato Stud’s draft at Karaka 2019, and she placed in three of her four starts in the spring including the Listed Wanganui Guineas (1200m). After impressive back-to-back victories at Pukekohe and Riccarton in March, she made her NZB Southern Filly Series debut in the NZB Airfreight Stakes (1600m) on April 10. It was a 13-horse field but turned into a one-horse race, with the Stephen Marsh-trained Atishu blowing everyone away by 7-lengths. There has been talk of a potential tilt at the Group 1 Queensland Oaks (2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 5, but first Atishu will try to wrap up her NZB Southern Filly of the Year title on Saturday. She goes into the Warstep Stakes as an equal leader on 7 points, alongside the winners of the first two legs – Matchmaker (NZ) (Makfi) and The Gift (NZ) (Power). Neither of those fillies are in Saturday’s Warstep Stakes field. The only potential title threats are Larpower (NZ) (Power) and Exquisite Pearl (NZ) (Power), who each earned 4 points with runner-up finishes earlier in the Series. Atishu beat them both with ease last start, but if either can turn the tables on the odds-on favourite and pick up the 7 points available to the Warstep Stakes winner, they could move to the top of the table.