Delivering her trademark brilliant acceleration, top class 3YO filly Jennifer Eccles (Rip Van Winkle) secured clear favouritism for the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks at Trentham next month with an emphatic victory in the Gr.2 Lowland Stakes at Hastings on Wednesday. 

Jennifer Eccles’ dominant win follows success in the Gr.2 Eight Carat Classic at Ellerslie and Gr.2 Fillies’ Classic at Te Rapa and she has now accumulated an exceptional total of 32.5 points in the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly Of The Year series, making the Shaune Ritchie-trained filly an almost certain winner of the highly coveted event. 

Testament to both her quality and constitution, as well as the skill of her trainer, is the fact the daughter of Rip Van Winkle has raced since the beginning of the season and never finished further back than fourth in ten starts, eight of them in stakes races that also includes a runnerup finish in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas at Riccarton last November. 

Rip Van Winkle (Galileo), the sire of 31 stakes winners, is enjoying a stellar season headlined by his world class last start Gr.1-winner Te Akau Shark, who is scheduled to run as favourite this Saturday in Sydney’s Gr.1 ATC Chipping Norton Stakes. 

Together with Te Akau Shark and Jennifer Eccles, Rip Van Winkle has also been represented recently by Group winner Germanicus and hugely talented Sydney filly Subpoenaed, an impressive recent winner for champion trainer Chris Waller and who is on track towards Gr.1 target races this Autumn.