The daughter of Ace High won three races as a three-year-old for Wexford trainers Lance O\u2019Sullivan and Andrew Scott, including the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) and Group 2 Eight Carat Classic (1600m), before her subsequent sale to well-known Australian owner Ozzie Kheir, whose colours she carried to victory in the Group 2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies Classic (2000m) before she continued her racing career across the Tasman. <\/p>\n
Jon Smith, a member of that ownership group, said her deeds on the track were a great tonic for his friendship group, particularly Nick, who is now in remission but on a journey to full recovery to this day. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our friends was diagnosed with cancer, and it brought our whole group together from all over the world,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re scattered everywhere \u2013 Saudi [Arabia], Melbourne, Sydney, Dubai, Ireland, England, and life had pulled us in all different directions. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe needed something upbeat, a journey we could all get behind, and that was the beginning of Molly Bloom. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in full remission now, which is incredible, everyone knew it was going to be a long road, and it is, as he still battles Graft-Verse-Host Disease [GVHD]. <\/p>\n
\u201cMolly gave us something to connect to emotionally, especially after she won the Guineas. Following her week-to-week became the distraction we all needed. It gave us a single purpose during a really tough time.\u201d <\/p>\n
The group got a taste of success with Molly Bloom, alongside the camaraderie the venture provided to the group, and they were keen for more, electing to invest in another Wexford Stables yearling. <\/p>\n
The group decided upon Panther, another progeny of Rich Hill Stud stallion Ace High, whom Wexford had purchased out of the Matamata farm\u2019s 2024 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 National Yearling Sale draft for $280,000. <\/p>\n
He proved to be hot property and the group missed out on attaining shares in the now gelding, but upon hearing of their plight, co-owner Simon Doull contacted the group to offer them some of his shares in Panther. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually missed out on Panther at first, he was hot property back then,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSimon Doull very kindly gave our group a portion of his share so we could keep the dream alive. We owe Doully big-time for that. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved the story and the fact it was a good bunch of lads, he wanted to keep us involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special that the same group is back in again, still on the ride together.\u201d <\/p>\n
Panther has given the group plenty to smile about so far, winning one and finishing runner-up in three of his four starts to date, including a bold second to Belle Cheval (NZ) (Savabeel) in last weekend\u2019s Group 3 Uncle Remus Stakes (1400m) at Ellerslie. <\/p>\n
That performance sealed O\u2019Sullivan and Scott\u2019s decision to select him as their slot representative in the $4 million NZB Kiwi (1500m) on Champions Day at Ellerslie next Saturday, and Smith said the group can\u2019t believe their run of luck. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a Group 1 winner and now a runner in the $4 million NZB Kiwi, it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel very lucky. This is not something you take for granted. I\u2019ve spent my whole life in this game and know how hard it is to get just one winner, let alone the position we\u2019re in \u2013 we\u2019re genuinely so grateful. But also believe we can win again.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not one voice message from Lance and Andrew that says we can\u2019t win. They\u2019re not going there to make up numbers \u2013 they\u2019re going there to win. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got so much upside, he\u2019s still so lightly raced. There\u2019s only one way to go from here, and that\u2019s up.\u201d <\/p>\n
With his group of mates scattered all around the world, Smith said they won\u2019t all be trackside to cheer their charge home, but they will be barracking for Panther from all four corners of the globe. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone would be flying in if it wasn\u2019t for my wedding in five weeks, but they\u2019ll be watching live, wherever they are in the world,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe buzz in our group chat is unreal \u2013 it feels like Molly Bloom all over again when she went to the 1000 Guineas, we are hopeful for the same result.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The daughter of Ace High won three races as a three-year-old for Wexford trainers Lance O\u2019Sullivan and Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9526,4057,8474,19343,14768,2082,1445,209,14568,78,2203,194,9093,22638,32897,5971,111,139,1536,69,152667,9769,153663,2202,17879,4525,1962,213,140944,1355,21694,427,86662,5427,9938,168099],"class_list":["post-307820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-another","tag-behind","tag-chapter","tag-desire","tag-every","tag-for","tag-friends","tag-group","tag-horse","tag-in","tag-journey","tag-kiwi","tag-lies","tag-marks","tag-mate","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-nzb","tag-owners","tag-panther","tag-remarkable","tag-selection","tag-something","tag-special","tag-sports","tag-stables","tag-starting","tag-step","tag-story","tag-truly","tag-unique","tag-united","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}