Noverre’s Waiheke Rose in Gr.1 Flight Stakes market

Wednesday at Warwick Farm we saw the impressive debut by Waiheke Rose (Noverre ex Maxmara), who ran a neck into second place over 1400m – click to watch.

However, the Waterhouse-Bott team feel she’ll be better over further, with her name in the mix for the Gr.1 Flight Stakes over 1600m on 3 October. Waiheke Rose was offered by Waikato Stud at the 2025 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale and was bought by the Waterhouse-Bott team and Kestrel Thoroughbreds for $160,000.

In a database email to clients analysing the Waterhouse-Bott three-year-old fillies in the market for the Gr.1 Flight Stakes, it was Waiheke Rose who leads, the email reading:

We Are Due:
Between them Gai and Adrian have trained 11 of the last 20 winners of the Group 1 Flight Stakes, three victories in the last 10 years. That’s a win every 2-3 years and hence we are due in 2026 having not won the race since 2023.

But Who?
Easier said than done, but a month out from the mile feature race we feel we have as strong a contingent of 3YO fillies as we have had for a while. Let’s preview our 2026 contenders in order of market price currently:

WAIHEKE ROSE (Noverre) – Had a great debut over 1400m yesterday at Warwick Farm. She is very talented, and both her sire and dam sire were Group 1 winning milers.

SAVVY DIAMOND (Savabeel) – a nice winner on debut this prep, followed by two encouraging runs in Sydney on Saturdays at distances short of her best. Her sire is one of the best Classic winning sires of his time, and was the broodmare sire of our 2021 winner Never Been Kissed. This filly is inbred to Champion sire Zabeel.

Can the father-son duo quinella the Group 1 race and become the first in history? Well, someone has to create history and we do hope it’s Savabeel and his sire-son Noverre.