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A Fascination Street win in Saturday's Listed Cuisine Classic Rotorua Stakes (1400m) would cap an already memorable week for syndicator Adrian Clark.
Clark, from Hamilton, wears several hats in the thoroughbred industry, among them managing the bloodstock interests of Nearco Stud's Greg Tomlinson and was delighted to sell every horse offered on his behalf at this week's National Weanling, Broodmare and Mixed Bloodstock Sale at Karaka.
The banner result was the $170,000 price tag on a Tavistock-Sentura colt sold through Curraghmore.
"It's been a great week. Our returns for Nearco have been well beyond expectations in keeping with the buoyancy of the whole sale. We sold every horse that we put through and that was very satisfying," Clark said.
Clark's attention now turns to the racetrack and he'd love to see Challenge No.1 Syndicate-owned mare Fascination Street seal successive wins in the weight-for-age fillies and mares feature.
"She's been a fantastic mare for our owners and the syndicate is very excited for this weekend. We've focused her preparation on this race for a while and we're very happy with where she's at," Clark said.
"Her trackwork on Tuesday was first-class and the reports from the stable is that she's doing well. She's got the ability to handle a testing track and they don't all do that."
A winner of five of her 22 starts, Fascination Street ran third placings in the Listed Ryder Stakes at two and the Gr.3 Gold Trail Stakes and Gr.2 Hawke's Bay Guineas at three, going on to her first stakes win in last year's Rotorua Stakes as a four-year-old.
The Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott-trained mare completed her preparation for her title defence with a last-start win at Te Rapa.
"Last year we really didn't know whether she'd handle the heavy track and we were just anxious that she came through it safely," Clark said.
"I remember telling Michael Coleman jockey to look after her because she might hate this, so it was pretty special when she won it. It would be pretty special if she could win it again, especially for the 50 owners in her.
"Last year she was on a rating of 80 going into the race and this year's she's 94. We feel she's a good chance of going back-to-back. It would really cement her value as a race-cum-broodmare."