Cambridge Stud stallion Sword Of State was represented by an impressive trial winner when State Of Valour (NZ) (Sword Of State) coasted to victory in his two-year-old heat over 730m at Te Rapa on Tuesday.
Prepared by Chad Ormsby, the gelding was quickly into stride to sit on the pace and lengthened stride in the run home under a minimum of urging by Tayla Mitchell to score by three and a-half lengths.
“I was very impressed by what he did with the little practice that he’s had,” his trainer said.
“He came to us to be broken in and we identified him as quite an early type, we got him going and everything from that time on has been really natural.
“I’ve been impressed by the stallion and have got a couple by him in the stable and this one is the more forward of the two.”
State Of Valour failed to meet his $60,000 reserve when offered at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale and is a son of the French-bred Lope De Vega mare Illadore, whose family boasts an abundance of international stakes winners.
“I’ll talk to the team but I think we can go to the races with him now. He’s a half-brother to Sister Ping who we had later in her career, and she was very fast over a shorter distance and I think he’s in a similar mould,” Ormsby said.
Sword Of State won four times as a juvenile, with his career highlight a victory in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) to claim champion two-year-old honours.
He trained on the following season to claim two Group Three prizes, including a defeat of ten-time top-flight winner Imperatriz in the Almanzor Trophy.
Ormsby also had Group Three winners Master Fay (Deep Field) and Outovstock (NZ) (Tavistock) stretch their legs at Te Rapa on Tuesday for a fifth and second respectively.
“We had Opie aboard Master Fay and he came back with a grin on his face and said how good he felt. It was just a nice quiet trial, he will take a lot of improvement from it,” Ormsby said.
“We were thinking of going to the Matamata Cup with Outovstock, but we will wait for the tracks to improve a bit and we won’t rush him as we have all summer.
“It was a good trial from him, we are really pleased and he found the line nicely. It looks as though he has come back in good order.”
Meanwhile, recent Ellerslie winner Have a Crack (Zoustar) has returned to the stable after a short let-up after winning over 1200m earlier this month.
“He kept himself a little bit busy, we were hoping to give him a couple more weeks of a break, but because he was so active in the paddock, he indicated that he wants to be back in work. We will probably see him back at the races in three or four weeks,” Ormsby said.
“When he gets on the good ground that Ellerslie produces, he has an action that suits, he can really quicken with a blistering turn of foot.”
