Soriano gets deserved reward

18 October 2014

Soriano turned her luck around at Arawa Park on Saturday with a confidence-boosting victory ahead of a bigger target.

The Graeme and Debbie Rogerson-trained mare stepped back in class to the Listed Agrodome Rotorua Plate and showed her quality with a commanding win under 59kg.

Soriano was coming off Group One placings at Hastings in the Windsor Park Plate and the Livamol Spring Classic and she will move back up the stakes ladder next time out in the Gr.3 Sofitel Luxury Hotels at Ellerslie on November 4.

“She’s a great mare and done the old man Savabeel proud,” Graeme Rogerson said. “Debbie has always had a lot of faith in this mare and she’s had no luck in the Group Ones, but she will.

“I thought she was a certainty even with the 59 – she’s getting better and better.”

Soriano settled well off the pace and when the field fanned out into the straight she responded quickly for rider Rory Hutchings to power between runners.

“Nothing went our way and she couldn’t muster early speed and we got a long way back,” he said.

“I went between Saint Kitt and Noble Warrior and she was doing it strongly.”

Soriano won going away by a length and a-quarter from Noble Warrior, who is bound for the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup at Riccarton, and the longshot Little Alfie Brown held third from Smartly.

“She’s going to be even better next season,” Rogerson said. “Come the autumn we might see her in Australia.”

The stable had early thoughts of setting the five-year-old for the Gr.1 Caulfield Cup before settling on a domestic campaign, but they will have a representative at the Melbourne spring carnival.

“We looked at the Mackinnon as well, but Costume will run in that,” Rogerson said. – NZ Racing Desk.

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