KHAFEEF dominant at Awapuni in his first New Zealand win

Fortuna 6yo KHAFEEF (Champs-Elysees – Tawaareekh) gave his rivals a galloping lesson when winning the Rating 65 2200m event at Awapuni 3oth October by four and a half lengths. Settled in the back half of the field by rider Ryan Elliot in a nice spot one off the rail, Khafeef relaxed nicely in the run in a race that was being run at a brisk tempo with a tearaway leader Bear Grylls giving the field something to chase. Ryan set Khafeef alight from about the 700m mark, he came into the race strongly, was widest on turning, and then mounted a powerful winning run down the centre of the straight going to the line under a hold.

Click HERE to see the race replay

Fortuna Director John Galvin, locked up in Hamilton due to Level 3 restrictions, revelled in the moment “It took me a while to climb down off the wall after that effort – he has been knocking on the door of late, his last start 2nd at Hastings after running into traffic problems in the run home was exceptional, so we went in to today’s race with a fair degree of confidence. I could see he was going real well from about the 700m mark as he started to chase the leaders down and I was pretty sure he could do so, but I wasn’t expecting the 4.5 length margin.

“He did really need to win today in order to get enough ratings points to have a chance of making the NZ Cup field. Overall this has been a very satisfying result as we had imported this horse from the UK in  2019 in order to target the big staying races – it has taken him time to find his feet, but his form since March of this year has been very good. Big kudos to Trainer Kevin Myers and his team, they have really worked Khafeef out and got him going well.

” The timing of this win is very relevant as well, because last Thursday, we bought another staying type, the 3yo Without Envy, from the Tattersalls Horses in Training Sale in the UK and he will arrive in NZ in December and so Khafeef’s win yesterday will spark a lot of interest in him from our clients”

 KHAFEEF – Awapuni 30th October 2021

KHAFEEF, who had raced in France as a 3yo for one win and a 2nd from four starts, was acquired by John Galvin, with the assistance of International Bloodstock Agent, Hubie De Burgh, at the 2019 Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale for 28,000 Guineas (NZ$60k approx).

He is raced by the Fortuna Khafeef Syndicate, an ownership group comprising 71 individuals, in the main New Zealanders, but with three of the Group from Hong Kong