Promising mare Watch Out kept her unbeaten record intact at Phar Lap Raceway on Sunday, continuing Karen and John Parsons’ 100 percent success rate with the four-year-old’s family.
The Balcairn husband and wife team train the daughter of Highly Recommended, with Karen officially listed as the breeder and owner.
“She’s in my name, but she’s actually John’s horse so I’m going to have to change the ownership because I’m sick and tired of getting ribbed about it,” she said.
They also trained Watch Out’s dam Arietta, who was a talented mare and retired with the tidy record of eight wins and 10 placings from her 28 appearances.
Her career highlight was a victory in the Listed Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes (1400m) and the daughter of Falkirk also finished third at Listed level in both the New Zealand Bloodstock Airfreight Stakes (1400m) and the Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m).
All three of Arietta’s foals to race have been successful, with her first Kandhu a two-time winner by Sepoy while Sweynesse filly La Bella Nera has won three of her eight outings, including a victory at her most recent appearance at Riccarton last month.
Arietta also has a yearling colt by Time Test and is in foal to King Of Comedy with the mating advice taken from the Wanganui-based Phillip Jeffreys under his Cloughmore Pedigrees banner.
“We only breed from the mares every second year now, I’ve had a stroke and John’s had a stroke and we’re 70-odd,” she said.
Watch Out won all three of her trials before a dream debut on the synthetic track at Riccarton nine days before a repeat winning performance on Sunday with Jasmine Fawcett in the saddle on both race day occasions.
“She’s had a few niggling issues, but she’s going well now,” Parsons said.
“Not many horses win their next start after a maiden and I felt the heat a bit but she didn’t let us down.
“I was as confident as I could be, I was worrying about it statistically but ability-wise I was never worried.”
Parsons will now consider the Ashburton meeting on July 6 as a possible next start for Watch Out.
“There’s a Rating 75 over 1200m coming up and down here it’s as dry as a chip so we’ll see what happens with the weather,” she said.
“She will definitely get 1400m and will probably get a mile eventually.”
