Trainer Graeme Rogerson will set Sweet Suitor for the Listed Bonecrusher Stakes after his effortless victory at Rotorua on Wednesday.

Sweet Suitor (3g Bachelor Duke – Holy Honey by Rory’s Jester) romped home by nearly five lengths after sitting three wide in the Patrons Maiden (1200m).  “I think he’s a very good horse,” Rogerson said.  “I thought he could win the last Karaka Million but he had a setback.  You will know a lot more about him by the end of this season.”

Sweet Suitor had finished second on debut to promising galloper Hoofit (Mossman) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day but injured a knee in the Countdown To Karaka Million at Ellerslie in January.  His next assignment in the Bonecrusher Stakes is scheduled for September 25 at Ellerslie.

Rogerson bought him for $12,000 at the 2009 NZ Bloodstock Select Sale from the draft of The Oaks Stud and kept a share in the youngster with Don Frampton.  

Sweet Suitor’s sire Bachelor Duke (Miswaki) stands at The Oaks Stud in Cambridge for a $12,000 service fee.  He was New Zealand’s Champion First Season and Second Season Sire.  His leader is the John Wheeler trained Keyora who was a G2 winner of the Wellington Breeders’ Guineas and Hawkes Bay Guineas last October.

He sired Sweet Suitor from Sydney juvenile winner Holy Honey who is a half-sister to Adelaide Listed winner Dual Hemisphere (Danehill Dancer) and the dam of Brisbane Listed winner Girl Hussler (Hussonet).

There’s more speed a generation further back via NZ bred mare Clever Zoe (Pompeii Court).  She was a Listed winner of the VATC Debutante Stakes and was beaten less than a length by Schillaci when the champion sprinter won the G1 VRC Lightning Stakes at Flemington in 1993.