I Do on target for second Rotorua Stakes

3 May 2014

Smart mare I Do completed a perfect dress rehearsal for an upcoming black type start when she won at Friday’s Otaki meeting. The versatile daughter of No Excuse Needed coped well with the Slow8 track conditions to post a short neck victory over the well-performed duo of Taurus and Civics Rock.

“Up until the Merial Metric Mile last year I wouldn’t have run her on a wet track and she ran second in that then won in a bog and now we have another string in our bow,” trainer Allan Sharrock said. I Do won the Rotorua Stakes last year and he is confident the grey can go back-to-back in the event.

“She will tighten for next Saturday and that’s where I want her,” he said.

Sharrock and WS bred and race I Do together and the six-year-old has now won 11 races, including the Gr 3 Manawatu Challenge Stakes.

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.