Last season’s New Zealand Derby winner Vin de Dance is off to a tremendous start this campaign, taking out the Listed Marks Ewen & Associates Kaimai Stakes (2000m) at Matamata last start. He triumphed in a desperate three-way finish for the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman stable and is now headed to the Group 1 Bonecrusher Stakes this Saturday on route to Australia for a run in the Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) held at Randwick on April 13.
Forsman was pleased with how Vin de Dance has come back from his summer spell as the stable eyes a major target in Sydney in the coming months. “He has come back better than we could have imagined and he has improved out of sight since then,” he said.
New Zealand Hall Of Fame trainer Murray Baker has become synonymous with the Sydney autumn carnival and this year he is taking aim at the Group 1 with Vin de Dance. He was allotted 51kg at the release of weights for the Sydney Cup.
“We will bring Vin De Dance over – he won the NZ Derby last year and he ran second in the Rosehill Guineas but was relegated to fourth. Then he was fourth in the Australian Derby,” Baker said.
“We brought him back over for the spring in Melbourne, but he wasn’t right. He only had two starts and then we took him home.
“But he’s come back well and I think he’s on the improve now. The Sydney Cup looks like it will suit him.”
Saturday’s Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes field includes multiple Group 1 winning mare Melody Belle who will be attempting to add a fifth Group One to her tally for the season this weekend and third in succession after taking out the BCD Sprint (1400m) and Haunui Farm WFA Group One Classic (1600m) earlier this year.
We look forward to seeing Vin de Dance step up to the plate and take on the best horses New Zealand has to offer in the Group 1, 2000m weight-for-age.
We wish his connections the best of luck at Ellerslie this Saturday!
