Big Hold Up is right on course for the G1 WATC Derby after a promising all-the-way victory in the LR Challenge Stakes (1400m) at Ascot on Saturday.

Big Hold Up (3g Postponed – Big To Do by Black Tie Affair) is part-owned by trainer Wally Mitchell and has won four of his six starts since arriving in Australia 12 months ago.  

Perth agent John Chalmers bought him from Highfields Thoroughbreds at the 2009 NZB Select yearling sale.  He cost $37,000 and was given a pipe-opener at Ellerslie on Boxing Day 2009 before travelling to Perth.

“We didn’t expect to get such an easy lead but it was a very good win,” Mitchell said after the Challenge Stakes.  “There’s still a lot of improvement left in him.”

Big Hold Up will head to the WATC Derby (2400m) on March 26 via lead-ups in the LR T J Smith Trophy (1600m) on February 12, LR Roberts Stakes (1800m) on February 26 and LR Melvista Stakes (2200m) on March 12.

He is one of nine stakes winners for Postponed who has a winning strike-rate of 54%.  He is a Northern Dancer line sire through Storm Bird and Summer Squall and stands at Gerry Harvey’s Westbury Stud in NZ for an $11,500 service fee.

Big Hold Up’s dam Big To Do was bred in the USA and is a half-sister to G1 Florida Derby winner Croeso.  She has foaled five winners to date including NZ filly Opus Four (Stravinsky) and Malaysian gelding Future Shock (Royal Academy).  They have both won up to a mile.

Highfields Thoroughbreds will sell a three-quarter sister to Big Hold Up at the NZB Karaka Festival Sale next Sunday, February 6.  Catalogued as Lot 1315, she is by Postponed out of his unraced half-sister sister Big Soiree.