Orion strikes career win #3 for Moody

Capable mare Mercury Mistress made a triumphant return from injury at Ellerslie where she accounted for her Rating 90 sprint rivals. The WS-bred and sold four-year-old had had been given a break since she was galloped on when unplaced in the Gr 2 Rich Hill Mile on New Year’s Day and came back full of enthusiasm.

“She’s a stakes-winning mare with plenty of ability and she came in fresh and with a lot of speed in the race it suited her,” Matamata trainer Lance Noble said. “Her long-term aim will be the Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 1) at Te Aroha.

Mercury Mistress settled of the pace and made a strong run four off the fence in the straight to post the fifth win of her career. “She’s very honest and we got into a nice spot and she never stops trying,” rider Alvin Ng said.

By No Excuse Needed, she is out of the winning Centaine mare Flytaine from the family of Gr 1 Avondale Gold Cup winner She’s A Meanie, Mercury Mistress was a $20,000 purchase out of WS’s Select Sale draft to Karaka in 2008 and is raced by Sydney-based racing journalist Rob Burnet with his father Alan and Alan and Colleen Jackson. Last season she was successful in the Listed NZ Bloodstock Air Freight Stakes at Riccarton.