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Riccarton is a home away from home for speedy Ruakaka mare Illicit Dreams, who added a blistering front-running win in Saturday’s Listed Donaldson Brown Pegasus Stakes (1000m) to her proud record at the Christchurch track.
A daunting 1200km journey separates Riccarton from trainer Kenny Rae's Northland base, but Illicit Dreams has repeatedly taken those big trips in her stride and produced some of the best performances of her career.
The daughter of Vancouver is now a dual stakes winner and has also been stakes-placed, and all of those have been at Riccarton. She won the Listed Champagne Stakes (1200m) as an autumn two-year-old in 2023, then returned last spring for a runner-up finish behind Viva Vienna in the Listed Canterbury Belle Stakes (1200m). Overall, Illicit Dreams has now had two wins and two placings from seven starts at the track.
The four-year-old ran her rivals off their feet in Saturday's Pegasus, which was the first of eight black-type races to be staged at Riccarton during the New Zealand Cup Carnival.
Sam Spratt sent Illicit Dreams straight to the lead and dominated the race from there, kicking hard in the straight and keeping herself out of reach of the highly rated Australian import South Of Houston. Illicit Dreams was still a half-neck in front of that rival at the finish line, with the same margin back to Tikki in third.
Illicit Dreams stopped the clock at 55.3 seconds on a Soft5 track. It the fourth-fastest time for the Pegasus Stakes in the last 20 years, beaten only by Ticklish (54.20 seconds in 2006), Darcybee (54.82 seconds in 2005) and Sensei (55 seconds in 2019).
Bought by Rae Racing for $30,000 from Book 2 of Karaka 2022, Illicit Dreams has now earned over $180,000 from a 19-start, five-win career.
"Well, we've got one win from the trip down south anyway," Rae said. "I was thinking of going straight into the Stewards' Stakes (Listed, 1200m) next week with her, but then I thought you can get bad luck with draws and things like that. She can still back up next week now, but if she doesn't, we've got a prize anyway.
"I thought she was at false odds coming into this, and we've got the result. I'd like to thank the owners, and one of them isn't here today because he's been a bit crook lately. It's a big trip down for this carnival. I've got a lot of good people behind me that make it possible, and I'd like to thank them as well."
Illicit Dreams provided a winning start to an exciting carnival for Spratt, whose rides also include Group One favourites Savaglee and Alabama Lass.
"This horse was ready to run today, they said she'd been working beautifully down here," she said. "Kenny told me that she might be a step slow away, but once she gets up and running, she's off. We managed to get the kick right today, and I was pretty happy once we did that. She cruised along at a really nice speed.
"If she gets away with an easy lead again, she might be alright stepping up to 1200m for the Stewards next week. But she is a real little running type and probably needs that uncontested lead."