Successive SI Breeders’ Stakes wins for stable and Gallant Guru

White Robe Lodge apprentice Jacob Lowry and WRL-trained and bred Coulee starred at Riccarton on Saturday (2/4/2016). Lowry (18) rode Coulee to win the group three $80,000 Valachi Downs South Island Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (1600m) for mares and fillies and Hexie Hao to win the $30,000 Seaton Family Memorial Hororata Gold Cup (1800m).  It was thus successive SI Breeders' Stakes wins for  WRL and  resident stallion Gallant Guru, the sire of Coulee and Include (ridden by Courtney Barnes), who won the race last year.

The $46,875 first prize advanced  the stake earnings of Coulee (ex Cherry Creek) to $130,272 from six wins and  eight placings in 19 starts for breeders Brian and Lorraine Anderton (grandparents of Lowry), Gordon Dickson, of Invercargill, Maurice Hampton, of Wyndham, the Diamond, White Flash and Woolshed Wednesday syndicates. "She is a tough horse and she will go for a spell now," said co-trainer Brian Anderton. Lowry also praised Coulee: "She is the toughest mare I have ridden. She is not big but she has a big 'ticker'. "

Cherry Creek won the Canterbury Belle Stakes (1200m) for 3yr-old fillies at Riccarton in 2007, the Breeders' Stakes Trial (1200m) and an open 1200m there in 2009. A Raise The Flag filly out of Cherry Creek will be offered by WRL at the NZ Bloodstock South Island yearling sale on April 17. A colt by Raise The Flag from Stage Flash, the dam of Cherry Creek, is also in the WRL draft for the sale, along with a filly by Star Witness from Sheeza Drama, a half-sister to Stage Flash. Stage Flash is also the dam of winners News Flash (seven), Powder Creek (three) and Whare Creek.  Brian bought Stage Flash at a Queensland sale in 2003 when she was carrying Cherry Creek (by Monashee Mountain). Trainers Brian and Shane Anderton won the SI Breeders' Stakes with Monte Carlo in 1996 and Brian trained Freedom Flight to win the race in 1992 and 93. Brian has the best training record in the 35 year history of the race.