Popular mare Avoid Lightning has been retired from racing and will start a new career as a broodmare during the upcoming breeding season.
Avoid Lightning recorded the final race win of her racing career in the Sapphire Stakes during The Championships. Photo by: Steve Hart
Avoid Lightning started her racing career under the care of David Jolly with a three length win at Murray Bridge in September of 2011 and she worked her way through the grades nicely before she made her black-type debut with an impressive win in the Listed Lightning Stakes (1050m) at Morphettville on July 28 before she made her Melbourne racing debut with a fourth place finish in the Group 3 Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.
The Blevic mare claimed another stakes win in the 2013 edition of the WJ Adams Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield and she was placed in the Group 3 Irwin Stakes (1100m) at Morphettville ahead of her credible sixth place finish in the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m).
Avoid Lightning failed to fire in three race starts during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival and she was transferred to the care of Les Bridge before her autumn campaign last year before she scored her maiden race win for her new trainer in the Group 3 Birthday Card Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens.
The consistent sprinter took out both the At Sea Handicap (1100m) and the Listed June Stakes (1100m) at Royal Randwick in dominant fashion before she was only narrowly denied by Cosmic Endeavour and Angel Of Mercy in the Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 21.
Avoid Lightning took out the Group 3 The Nivison (1200m) in her only race start during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival and she started her autumn campaign with a credible third in the Group 2 Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens on February 21, but she did not have any luck when tenth in the Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m) at the same venue on March 21.
She returned to winning form in the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on April 11 and she was not far away in both the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville on May 2 and the June Stakes at Royal Randwick on June 6 before she finished her racing career with another third place finish in the Tattersall’s Tiara.
Bridge said that there were no issues with Avoid Lightning and she could have raced on as a seven-year-old, but he said that his star mare was deserving of a change at this stage of her career.
“It’s sad to see her go,” Bridge said.
“She was a terrific mare and so genuine.
“She would go on anything but with the sting out of the ground she was at her best.”
Avoid Lightning finished her racing career with 11 wins from 29 race starts and she accumulated just under $1 million in prizemoney for connections.
