Barbara Kennedy is hoping she will be pouring more wine in celebration following Wingatui’s meeting on Saturday where the South Auckland trainer is seeking to score more southern stakes success.

The expat South African is currently on her first South Island campaign, and she kicked it off with a bang when recording her first stakes win when Pour The Wine powered away to a two-length victory in the Listed Timaru Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton a fortnight ago.

“We didn’t expect her to win like that, but we are taking it,” Kennedy said. “Since arriving down south she has been thriving.”

“It was my first win with this mare. All her prior wins had been with Peter and Dawn (Williams). It seemed like I was never going to win a race with her, so to get a win and for it to be my first stakes win was just fantastic.”

While Kennedy has returned to her Byerley Park base in the interim, Pour The Wine has been entrusted to the care of Riccarton trainer Lance Robinson and Kennedy said she has received positive feedback ahead of tackling the Listed Property Brokers – Ray Kean Hazlett Stakes (1400m) on Saturday.

“She has been staying down with Lance Robinson and the reports back have been that she is loving life down south, her work has been really good, they are really happy with her going into it,” she said.

Kennedy will be trackside on Saturday and will take the scenic route to Dunedin, heading to Christchurch first to meet her mare before joining her on the trip south to Wingatui.

“I have never been that far south, it is my first trip down there too, so I am looking forward to it,” she said. “I am flying to Christchurch and then driving down so I will hopefully get to see a bit of the countryside.”

Pour The Wine will be ridden from barrier nine by Canterbury jockey Tina Comignaghi and is currently an $8.50 equal third favourite for the Hazlett, alongside the Anna Furlong-trained Betty Spaghetti, with local hope Brave Spirit heading the market at $5.50.

All going to plan, Pour The Wine is set to have two more starts in the south, including next month’s Gr.3 Donaldson Brown South Island Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) at Riccarton, before returning home for a spell.

“There are probably two more races down there that we will go for, but we will see how she comes out of this race on Saturday first,” Kennedy said.