Rain no help for talented Rondinella
Rondinella has again acquitted herself exceptionally well in top company on a surface that didn’t do her any favours.
The Ocean Park mare got home strongly at Ellerslie this afternoon to run third in the Gr.1 New Zealand Stakes.
The heavily rain-affected track was far from suitable, but her class showed through ahead of a possible Australian campaign.
“I put it to the owners whether they wanted to run,” co-trainer Roger James said.
“I wasn’t that keen, but they pointed out we could strike a track like this in Sydney so we needed to know how she would go.”
Rondinella had also performed creditably when runner-up in the Listed Kaimai Stakes on a soft Matamata track at her previous start.
All four of the lightly-raced mare’s wins have come on top of the ground.
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