Millwood Nike Speeds to a Perfect Ten in Group Two Success

 

Millwood Nike (NZ) (Captaintreacherous) unleashed dazzling speed to take her unbeaten record to a perfect ten in the $62,000 Group Two Peter Breckon Memorial Caduceus Club Ladyship Stakes (2200m) at Alexandra Park on Friday night.

The Mark and Nathan Purdon-trained NZB Standardbred graduate swept past her rivals with an explosive turn of foot to make it ten wins from ten starts while reaffirming her status as New Zealand’s dominant three-year-old pacing filly.

Millwood Nike was purchased by the All Stars Racing Stables for $75,000 from Millwood Farm’s draft at the 2021 National Yearling Sale in Christchurch.

The star filly looked slightly vulnerable when settling off the pace while third placegetter Wicked Wanda and driver Dylan Ferguson were controlling the race in front and the Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan trained Advance Party was enjoying a sweet run in the trail.

But when it came time to get serious, Mark Purdon called upon his brilliant three-year-old and she delivered in style.

“She has got a wonderful attitude, there was a bit of speed on early in the race and she just came back to me nice,” Purdon said.

“She ended up getting a nice trip, Dylan got away with a couple of nice sectionals in the middle part and they sprinted hard at the 400m.”

“It was quite a good effort to pick (Wicked Wanda) up and Barry’s filly (Advance Party).”

Incredibly, Millwood Nike produced her seventh win at stakes level in just her 10th start in Friday night’s feature.

The three-year-old will now be tried past 2200m for the first time in this week’s $90,000 Group One Pascoes The Jewellers Northern Oaks (2700m).

Taking on largely the same field again, Millwood Nike is sure to be incredibly hard to beat.

“It really couldn’t have gone any better for her and she will probably only meet mostly the same fillies next week,” Purdon said.

The Mark and Nathan Purdon stable produced five wins on Friday night at both Alexandra Park and Addington to take Mark Purdon’s tally of training wins past the incredible milestone of 2500.