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Luberon’s heroics in the Gr.3 Haunui Farm Counties Bowl (1100m) gave trainer Lance Noble reason to expect something special from her trackwork companion Frostfair in the very next race on the card at Pukekohe on Saturday, and so it proved.
Lightly raced mare Frostfair warmed up for Saturday's Stella Artois 1500 Championship Qualifier (1400m) with a bold gallop on Tuesday in company with stablemate Luberon. Noble was enormously impressed with that work at the time, and even more so after Luberon blew her rivals away by two and a half lengths in the Counties Bowl.
"She worked with Luberon on Tuesday of this week and both of them worked absolutely superbly," Noble said. "That meant we came here today with a little bit of confidence, and especially after Luberon's race earlier in the afternoon."
Frostfair is putting together a promising record in her own right, heading into Saturday's $75,000 Rating 75 event with six starts under her belt for two wins, a second, two thirds and a fourth. The four-year-old daughter of Written Tycoon was a strong last-start winner in Rating 65 grade at Ellerslie on November 5.
Jockey Warren Kennedy positioned Frostfair in eighth place in a strung-out field as Leroy Brown, Butterfield, Force Of Nature and Keegan led the charge until to the point of the home turn.
Frostfair was still more than half a dozen lengths from the leaders at the top of the straight, but Kennedy went to work and the favourite began to move through her gears.
She bounded past Butterfield at the 150m mark and forged clear, opening up a winning margin of three and a half lengths over Sorghaghtani and Force Of Nature.
"She probably got a little bit further back than we might have hoped, but Warren didn't panic," Noble said. "It was a good win in the end.
"She's a big mare that's taken a bit of time, but she's never been out of the first four in her career. She's notching up a pretty good record. We'll probably look for some black type at some stage in her campaign."
Frostfair's performance came in the toughest test of her career to date and made a good impression on Kennedy.
"She's really coming along well," he said. "She's won with a lot of authority today. She had a good look around in the straight, but she'd already put the race to bed pretty early. I certainly think she's black-type quality."
Bred and raced by Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay, Frostfair is out of the Commands mare Thames Court, who herself won three races including the Gr.3 Alexandra Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley. She also finished fourth in the Gr.1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
Thames Court is the dam of two winners from two named foals, with Frostfair's older half-brother Royal Court winning over 2000m in Australia last year. Thames Court produced a colt by Pierro in 2021, followed by a Capitalist filly in 2022. The latter was sold for $200,000 at Karaka earlier this year.