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Silver Ferns LIVE from 7.30pmBakhita to make NZ debut
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • September 3rd, 2025 1:33 pm
Bakhita will make her New Zealand debut in the Property Brokers – Ray Kean (1200m) at Wingatui on Friday | Photo: Bradleyphotos.com.au
A new member will join the South Island’s racing ranks on Friday, with Deep Field mare Bakhita set to make her New Zealand debut in the Property Brokers – Ray Kean (1200m) at Wingatui.
The four-year-old mare was previously trained in Australia by Lou Mary, for whom she won two of her 10 starts before being offered on Inglis Digital in June.
Grassyards Farm’s Jason Coutts was looking for another racing prospect and future broodmare, and Bakhita caught his eye, with the Otago horseman going to A$40,000 to secure her.
“We bought her off Inglis Digital,” he said. “We found that with our breeding programme, we had too much young stock and we needed some more ready to race.
“Because we are a breeding farm, we thought we would try and get something out of Australia, and we found her.
“She had a couple of wins over there and she was more of a sprinter, which we quite liked. We haven’t had too many of those in the stable lately.
“Being by Deep Field out of a Shamardal mare was also really appealing to us.”
Bakhita has been in Coutts’ care for nearly three months and he has been impressed with his new acquisition.
“We have had her in New Zealand for about 11 weeks,” he said. “We were going to race her a bit earlier, but it got really wet.
“A lot of her racing was done the opposite way to what we do in the South Island, we just had to do a bit of work on her so she was comfortable and balanced going the opposite way.”
While Bakhita has won on a Heavy track in Australia, Coutts is still wary of whether she can handle a New Zealand Heavy track, with Winagtui rated a Heavy10 on Wednesday morning.
“I have still got a big question mark over the wet track at Wingatui versus a wet track in Australia,” he said. “She is most likely four weeks too early, but she needs a run.”
While he purchased Bakhita as a broodmare prospect, Coutts said there is plenty of racing ahead of her, and he is already dreaming of a potential crack at stakes level with the mare.
“We want to pick up another win sooner rather than later and take her to Cup Week,” he said. “I think she will be competitive enough up there.
“If we can sneak in a bit of black-type somewhere along the line, that would be really good for her breeding-wise. There is no rush for the breeding shed, she has got plenty of racing ahead of her.”
Coutts is into his seventh season training and he is enjoying the challenge, after predominantly being involved in the breeding side of the industry.
“It has been really good,” he said. “We started off predominantly breeding and having other people train for us, but we have brought everything inhouse a wee bit, which just allows us to have more numbers and be more affordable.”
Coutts previously stood stallions Prince of Brooklyn and Howard Be Thy Name at Grassyards Farm but has scaled back his breeding operation and said he is focusing on quality over quantity.
“We did have a lot of animals, but we have brought it back to try and look at quality,” he said.
“We have done some really nice breeding with Darley in Australia. We are about to foal down a Native Trail foal out of an Exceed and Excel mare.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
