Damian Lane has been booked to ride the Ben, Will and JD Hayes trained filly Torture in the $1 million Karaka Million (2YO) at Ellerslie in New Zealand on January 24.
The daughter of Sword Of State has raced on two occasions to date, winning the Listed Debutant Stakes at Caulfield over 1000m on October 15 in a race where she started at $21 and upstaged her more fancied stable companion Free Flying ($5.50) who had to be content with second place.
Allowed a two-and-a-half month break after that win, Torture resumed on January 3 finishing fourth in the Geelong Diamond over 1110m.
Lane will also ride Espionage in the Group 1 Railway Stakes which will be contested over 1200m on Karaka Millions day.
Espionage, who was formerly trained by the Gai Waterhouse / Adrian Bott partnership, finished third in his first start in New Zealand in an Open Class race over 1200m on January 1.
The son of Zoustar has two Group race wins on his resume … the 2023 Breeders’ Plate and the 2024 Kindergarten … with both of those wins coming at Randwick in Group 3 company.
Espionage’s last start in Australia was on September 13 in the Group 2 Theo Marks, in which he finished fifth, 5.22 lengths behind Autumn Glow.
