Critic makes her mark

21 August 2013

Former top-class WS mare Critic produced her first winner yesterday when Critical Angel broke her maiden on the synthetic track at Geelong. Trained by Peter Moody, the filly had finished runner-up in her juvenile debut last season and was then turned out after one more appearance.

Ridden by Michael Walker, Critical Angel sat in behind the pace and then bolted clear in the straight to win by three lengths. A nomination for the Gr.1 Thousand Guineas, she is raced by Stuart Ramsey’s Turangga Farm and was a $70,000 purchase from WS’s draft during the Premier Session at Karaka in 2012.

Her dam Critic was the winner of the Gr.1 Otaki-Maori WFA and is from an outstanding WS family. It features Critical Angel’s champion sire O’Reilly and recently crowned New Zealand Horse of the Year Ocean Park, who will stand his first season at the Matamata farm in 2013.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

Well, I got a bit behind last week, with Friday slipping by without realising it; hence no Corner. I have said on too many occasions that negative messages are of no help to anyone, and yet there seems so often a reason to be concerned. Clearly, this week the well-constructed Guerin Report on the threatened downgrade of our Group 1 races demands our attention.

21 October 2026

Vale Ohope Wins, Ocean Park’s tough, kind and courageous daughter

Long before her Oaks double, Ohope Wins’ greatest victory belonged to the Waikato Stud staff and Matamata Veterinary Services vets who saved her as a desperately sick foal. Taken far too soon at Caulfield, her remarkable story is theirs too.