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A Touch Of Ruby showed more than a touch of class when she wrote a perfect final chapter to her racing career at Trentham.
Motherhood so obviously agrees with the four-year-old, who saved her best until last on Saturday with a dashing performance to sign off with victory in the Gr.1 Harcourts Thorndon Mile.
“This is her final race and she’s in foal to Jimmy Choux and we thought if she ran in the first four it would make her worth a lot more money,” trainer Stephen Autridge said.
“It’s what everyone dreams of and it doesn’t often happen so it’s fantastic.”
Raced by a great supporter of New Zealand racing in Max Whitby, A Touch Of Ruby had won three of her previous 15 starts and at her final lead-up outing she had been successful in a Rating 85 sprint at Pukekohe Park.
Autridge said he had been very happy with the four-year-old’s condition leading into Trentham, but he did have a question mark on her ability to run a strong metric mile after three earlier failures at 1600 metres.
However, A Touch Of Ruby attacked the line resolutely in the closing 200 metres to bring about the happiest of endings for her connections.
“I didn’t intend to be that far back and she travelled into it really well,” rider Craig Grylls said. “They ran it hard up front and that set it up for something to come from the back.”
A Touch Of Ruby’s well-timed finish accounted for Costume, who also acquitted herself well in her open company debut, with Sacred Star a solid third ahead of the late finisher Zurella and Capone.
There was also a sensation at the start of the race when the Gr.2 Rich Hill Mile winner Chintz lost rider Mark Du Plessis, who stood himself down for one race before the Wellington Cup, in the first 100 metres.
Trelawney Stud will offer a half-sister (Lot 290) by Savabeel to A Touch Of Ruby during next week’s Premier Sale at Karaka.