South Island’s glamour galloper Final Touch (NZ) exacted revenge on a hot field of mares in the G2 Auckland Breeders’ Stakes on Saturday.

Final Touch was blocked for racing room when fourth in the Breeders’ Stakes twelve months ago but she took any luck out of the equation this year with a forward move approaching the home turn at Pukekohe.

“She was travelling that nicely that I thought I would let her stride up,” jockey Chris Johnson said.  “She hit the front a wee way out but she went to the line nicely.  She’s honest as and always tries.”

Final Touch (6m Kashani – My Lydia by Umatilla) defeated Postmans Daughter by three-quarters of a length with Lady Kipling third.  Her previous visit to Pukekohe was the springboard to Group 1 honours in the Captain Cook Stakes, Telegraph Handicap and Waikato Draught Sprint.

Owner-breeder Karen Parsons, who also trains Final Touch in partnership with her husband John, decided to postpone the mare’s retirement for another season of racing.  “It’s been a breath-taking ride, unbelievable,” she said.  “The Captain Cook is the next one again.”

Her sire Kashani (Danzig) stood at Highview Stud before succumbing to laminitis in April.  Her Australian-bred dam My Lydia ceased breeding in 2008.