Aussie Group I targeted

Top class racemare Culminate will chase a further Group One success in New Zealand and look to gain a black-type win in Queensland before the curtain comes down on her fine racing career.

Class simply prevailed when Culminate gave her rivals a galloping lesson to win the $20,000 Veloce Bella 1400 at Te Rapa yesterday by 4 3/4 lengths.

It was her 11th win from 32 starts and took her stake earnings up to $724,630.

The Stephen McKee-trained mare led throughout the 1400m event and was never in danger of defeat as she raced away in the closing stages from Indikator.

David Moore, representing her Karaka-based owners Soliloquy Lodge, confirmed Culminate will be retired to the broodmare paddock at the end of her current campaign.

She will be mated next spring with an Australian-based stallion, either Lonhro or Starcraft.

"We [Soliloquy Lodge] have shares in both these stallions and we will make a final decision closer to the time," Moore said.

Culminate already boasts a Group 1 victory, which she recorded in the Otaki Maori weight-for-age last year.

She will have the chance to secure another success at the elite level when she contests the $220,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Breeders' Stakes (1600m), at Te Aroha on April 10. She was runner-up in this race two years ago behind Special Mission.

After her Te Aroha assignment there is a good chance Culminate will head to the Gold Coast for the winter carnival, where securing a valuable Australian black-type win will be the target.

The Elnadim six-year-old mare showed she was up to the best racemares in Australia last season when she beat all but freakish galloper Typhoon Tracy in the Coolmore Classic in Sydney.

Culminate was ridden yesterday by apprentice jockey Danielle Johnson. But the mare will have a change of jockey at Te Aroha.

Leith Innes will have to decide whether he will ride Culminate or Boundless in the Breeders' Stakes.

"We are still waiting to hear from Leith but I am sure we won't have a problem getting another rider if he goes for the other mare."

- © Fairfax NZ News