Showcause Gives Ritchie Joy

Sunday, 14 November 2010 05:15

Trainer Frank Ritchie would like to see more 3200-metre races in New Zealand - and it's not just because his New Zealand Cup winner Showcause is best suited to the extreme distance.

"I think it's sad to see the two mile races going," Ritchie said after Saturday's Riccarton win in reference to the NZ Cup and Auckland Cup being the only two Group 3200-metre races left on the racing calendar.

The Wellington Cup was reduced to 2400 metres nearly three years ago, something Ritchie says is worthy of a rethink.

"The motivation in reducing the distance is to get better fields, but I don't think there is evidence to suggest that they do."

The 3200-metre races attract betting interest because they include a number of horses that can run 2400 metres well, but there is a question mark whether they will last the 3200 metres, Ritchie says.

"That helps make it a spectacle, but people will say I'm old and a traditionalist and that's true too."

Ritchie will now aim Showcause at the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie on March 9, ironically the only 3200-metre Group One race left in a country renowned for breeding stayers.

It is a $1 million race, but the purse is in jeopardy after next year's event, as the deal between the Government and the racing industry for million dollar races runs out at the end of the season, on July 31.

"Now that he has won the New Zealand Cup we will obviously target the Auckland Cup and try not to overtax him between then and now," Ritchie said. The Group Two $100,000 Waikato Gold Cup on Te Rapa on December 11 could be his next target if he recovers well from the Cup.

Ritchie thinks the Melbourne Cup is too classy an affair for Showcause.

"I honestly think Melbourne Cup is too hard a race for anything that raced yesterday. It's now a true international race."

An Adelaide or Sydney Cup could be in Showcause's sights, but Ritchie says he hasn't looked beyond the Auckland Cup.

There was plenty of significance in the win, the first at 3200 metres for Ritchie, famed for training the great weight-for-age galloper Bonecrusher.

Showcause is by Giant's Causeway out of Showella, whom Ritchie trained to win six races, including the South Australian Derby, and more than $500,000 in stakemoney.

Showella's grand-dam was the mighty South Island mare Show Gate.

Shaune Ritchie was successful in last year's NZ Cup, winning with My Scotsgrey.

Showcause was ridden by Darryl Bradley, who won the NZ Cup in 1998 with Sapio.

Wall Street On Cox Plate Highway

Sunday, 03 October 2010 02:15

A Cox Plate start for New Zealander Wall Street has been confirmed by his win in the Spring Classic at Hastings but trainer Jeff Lynds is under no illusion about the task at hand.

Wall Street was $2.60 favourite for the Group One Spring Classic (2040m) at Hastings on Saturday and never gave his supporters any cause for concern.

After racing outside the leader, he bounded to the lead at the top of the straight and comfortably held his rivals at bay.

Lynds is well aware Wall Street will have to take another step up to win the Cox Plate.

"He has to improve two to three lengths to be competitive in the Cox Plate," Lynds told NZPA.

But Lynds remains hopeful Wall Street has what it takes.

"He has been trained for that race," he said. "We are looking forward to see what he can do.

"That's what the plan's been. We've worked away at it but it hasn't been completed yet."

Lynds has had previous experience of the Cox Plate as the trainer of Marconee who ran sixth in the 1995 edition won by Octagonal.

He is confident Wall Street will cope with the trip to Melbourne. He raced in Sydney in the autumn, partly with the Cox Plate in mind, and although unplaced in the Doncaster Handicap (1600m) the horse thrived.

"That was specifically to give him a trip across the Tasman and get him prepared for this race," Lynds said.

Another boxed ticked by Wall Street on Saturday was the way he coped with the 2040 metres, the same distance as the Cox Plate. A six-year-old gelding by staying sire Montjeu, Wall Street had not previously raced beyond 1600 metres.

He drew the outside barrier in a field of 14 but he made such a good beginning that Michael Coleman ended up going forward instead of his original intention to settle back.

"Those plans went out the back door. I got across (to sit outside the leader) so easily," Coleman said.

From there it was plain sailing with Coleman only having to ride hands and heels in the home straight and everything amounting to a superior performance.

"He was super," Coleman said.

"I was confident when I asked him to quicken. I thought it would take a good horse to get over the top of him."

Wall Street has now won 10 of his 17 starts, three at Group One level.

Second place went to Ginga Dude in a repeat of last year but there was one major difference, the prize money.

Last year, when the race was known as the Kelt Capital Stakes, the total prizemoney was $1.2 million. But following the withdrawal of the race's sponsor, the race carried a mere $250,000 in stake money.

Keep The Peace ran third and will head to the Caulfield Cup as planned.

Australian Stayer Unplaced In NZ Cup

Sunday, 14 November 2010 01:45

Australian stayer Kerdem could finish no better than midfield in the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton on Saturday.

Ridden by Opie Bosson, Kerdem wound up eighth, beaten 4-1/2 lengths by Showcase in the 3200-metre feature.

The veteran's effort completed a frustrating day for trainer Patrick Payne, who saddled up Capecover in the inaugural 3200-metre Sandown Cup in Melbourne.

Capecover was strongly fancied to win the Sandown Cup after his luckless Queen's Cup placing but - like Kerdem - he never looked a genuine threat in finishing fourth.

Luck also deserted Victoria Derby-winning trainer Murray Baker as South Island filly King's Rose won the $NZ300,000 ($A235,000) One Thousand Guineas at Riccarton.

The race was marred by a scrimmage near the finish and a severe check to hot favourite, the Baker-trained We Can Say It Now.

As the field dashed for the line 100 metres out, We Can Say It Now was shockingly squeezed between Magic Briar and Twilight Savings and rider Mark Du Plessis

had to haul the horse back.

King's Rose, on the outside of the other three and not involved, strode to the line, almost a length clear of Magic Briar with the same margin to Twilight Savings, stablemate of We Can Say It Now.

As the field returned, the siren sounded as several protests were fired in.

After a lengthy hearing, the protest by the connections of We Can Say It Now, which recovered after the interference to finish fifth, was promoted to fourth behind King's Rose, Twilight Savings and Smoulder (originally fourth).

Magic Briar was relegated to fifth.

King's Rose, a Redoute's Choice filly out of a Nureyev mare, is trained at Rangiora by Jason Bridgman.

She started sixth favourite despite a brilliant last-start victory at Ashburton.

NZPA WGT

Scott Wants Munce For Miss Keepsake

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 02:45

New Zealand trainer Andrew Scott is hoping Chris Munce will be available to partner Queensland Oaks winner Miss Keepsake if she books a trip across the Tasman for next month's Group One Caulfield Cup.

Miss Keepsake will be on trial for her second trip to Australia when she lines up in Saturday's Group One Kitt Ormond Memorial Spring Classic, formerly the Kelt Capital Stakes, at Hastings.

Vinnie Colgan will partner Miss Keepsake in the Spring Classic after Munce was required for Queensland filly Ringa Ringa Rosie in the Group Two Sir Edward Manifold Stakes (1600m) at Flemington.

The Flemington meeting has since been transferred to Sunday to avoid clashing with Saturday's AFL grand final replay allowing Munce to ride at Eagle Farm where he is already in strong demand with five early bookings.

Munce took a one-win lead over Jim Byrne in the Brisbane jockeys' premiership with a winning double at Doomben last Saturday.

Miss Keepsake gave Scott his first Group One success in the Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm in June before backing up a week later to finish third to the Bart Cummings-trained Dariana in the Group One Queensland Derby (2400m).

Scott is not concerned Miss Keepsake has failed to regain her winter form in two starts this campaign in her homeland.

The daughter of Keeper finished in front of just one runner, almost seven lengths from the winner Elblitzem, when she resumed over 1600 metres at Hastings on August 28 before a struggling 12th to Wall Street in the Group One Windsor Park (1600m) at the same track on September 18.

"She's steadily picking up and I'm hoping her form gets back to what she showed in Brisbane," Scott said.

"Chris (Munce) could have ridden her in the Kelt but he was committed to Ringa Ringa Rosie when they were due to race on Saturday.

"Vinny Colgan is riding her now but I hope Chris will be available if she goes over for the Caulfield Cup."

Scott blames rain-affected tracks for Miss Keepsake's below-par performances this campaign and expects a sharp improvement once she gets on a dry surface.

"She's a duffer in the wet. I'm not concerned with her form and it's just a matter of getting the runs into her and getting her up to her right distance," he said.

"She's never been competitive in a big race at less than 2000 metres."

Munce is also keen to retain his association with Miss Keepsake who has won four of her 10 starts.

"I could have ridden Miss Keepsake on Saturday but Ringa Ringa Rosie has been very good to me and you can't give up on her for one bad run," Munce said.

"But if Miss Keepsake comes over for the Caulfield Cup I'd like to ride her."

Ringa Ringa Rosie struggled to cope at Caulfield when 11th to Divorces in the Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) on September 18.

However, Munce felt there were excuses for the defeat as she had trouble getting around the corners at Caulfield.

Picture: Sportpix

Wall Street Gives NZ Stocks A Boost

Sunday, 07 November 2010 07:45

New Zealander Wall Street will return to Australia in the autumn to contest weight-for-age races in Sydney.

Trainer Jeff Lynds said the winner of Saturday's Emirates Stakes at Flemington would also be aimed at the 2011 Cox Plate in the spring.

"That was his last handicap race," a happy Lynds told NZPA after Wall Street wound up a great carnival for New Zealand in Melbourne.

Lynds said Wall Street would head home for a month's spell before having a light autumn program that would include a visit to Sydney.

Wall Street's win followed that of the Murray and Bjorn Baker-trained Lion Tamer in the $A1.5 million Victoria Derby a week earlier, while New Zealand-bred So You Think won the Cox Plate and finished third in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup and a trio of NZ-breds in Descarado, Harris Tweed and Monaco Consul provided the trifecta in the Caulfield Cup.

Wall Street, New Zealand's best current weight-for-age horse, had won the Group One Spring Classic at Hastings on October 2 before heading to Melbourne and finishing seventh in the $A3 million Cox Plate.

In the Emirates, he showed courage in sprinting from beyond midfield to take the lead inside the last 100 metres and hold out Dao Dao by a short half-head.

"It was a good tough performance," Lynds said.

"We were quite advantaged in some ways - he had won three Group One races, but we got in with 55.5 kilograms.

"They just seemed to discount New Zealand form."

Lynds said he would map out a program with the owners, but races at the Auckland carnival in March were a possibility before heading to Sydney.

The Montjeu gelding ran 11th in the $A1 million Doncaster Handicap in April and was not fully comfortable with the switch from left-handed tracks.

"We want him to run right-handed again, because he is not conversant with that yet," Lynds said.

"Hopefully we can get him right on that."

The Cox Plate would be the main target again. "That's the pinnacle of weight-for-age races," he said.

The Emirates win capped a great week for Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman after he piloted Lion Tamer to victory in the Derby, the only jockey to win two Group Ones over the four-day Flemington carnival.

Bowman, who won last year's AJC Australian Oaks on kiwi mare Daffodil, said his win on Lion Tamer probably helped him get the ride.

"I was really pleased when I picked up the ride during the week and there's no doubt my success on Saturday winning the Derby might have had something to do with it," he said.

Picture: Quentin Lang

Phar Lap Skeleton Ready For Vic Trip

Tuesday, 07 September 2010 05:15

The skeleton of famed racehorse Phar Lap will leave New Zealand next week for a four-month visit to Melbourne as part of celebrations for the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup.

The skeleton, which will be travelling overseas for the first time since it arrived in New Zealand 1933, is leaving Wellington on Monday, September 13.

"It is currently packed in two custom-built crates, and ready to go," Museum of New Zealand spokeswoman Jane Keig told NZPA on Tuesday.

The NZ museum, also known as Te Papa, earlier this year agreed to loan Phar Lap's skeleton to the Melbourne Museum, which holds his mounted hide.

The skeleton of the 1930 Melbourne Cup winner will go on display as part of the celebrations to mark the 150th running of the race early in November, in an exhibition due to open on September 16.

Victoria Racing Minister Rob Hulls - who also unsuccessfully tried to get the National Museum of Australia in Canberra to loan Phar Lap's heart for the show - was due to thank workers at Te Papa on Tuesday afternoon.

Hulls asked the NZ museum for the skeleton and its steel framework last Easter, and in June remedial work was carried out because the framework supporting Phar Lap's head and neck had gradually slumped since the bones were first mounted.

The skeleton will be returned to Te Papa at the end of January and will be back on display by March, Keig said.

Phar Lap was foaled in New Zealand and raced in Australia.

He was born in 1926 and died in America in 1932 from a sudden mystery illness that was suspected to be accidental arsenic poisoning.

His owners donated his hide and heart to Australia and the skeleton to New Zealand.

NZ Stud Welcomes So You Think Relation

Monday, 11 October 2010 06:48

Breeder Mike Moran is riding the wave of success with So You Think and has welcomed a three-quarter brother to the triple Group One winner at New Zealand's Windsor Park Stud.

Moran was at Caulfield on Saturday to watch So You Think notch his third Group One win in the Yalumba Stakes.

"I flew back by myself, I didn't need a plane," Moran told New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing.

The Bart Cummings-trained So You Think was purchased from Windsor Park Stud's 2008 draft for $110,000 by Duncan Ramage on behalf of Dato Tan Chin Nam and Tunku Ahmad Yahaya.

"It was just an unbelievable day," Moran said.

"Early on Saturday morning I got a text from Roddy (Rodney Schick) to say So You Think's half-sister La Souvenir was foaling.

"I got down there ten minutes later, but by the time I got there, the colt foal was on the ground."

The colt is by So You Think's sire High Chaparral.

"He's thrown very much to High Chaparral's sire, there is a lot of Sadler's Wells about him," Moran said.

"It was just great timing really.

"I was able to head off to the airport having seen him before watching So You Think race."

Hypnotize Again Has Them Spellbound

Sunday, 05 September 2010 07:30

Grand jumper Hypnotize has written himself into racing folklore by winning his third Great Northern Steeplechase at Ellerslie.

He became just the second horse in the 126-year history of the race to win New Zealand's toughest race three times with Hunterville completing the hat-trick in 1985.

Hypnotize carried 70.5kg to victory on Saturday, the biggest winning weight for more than 50 years.

Making the 70.5kg he had to deal with all the more remarkable was that it was on a very heavy track in the gruelling event which is run over 6400 metres with 25 fences over three circuits of the hill course at the back of the Ellerslie track.

"I don't know how he does it. He's just a little horse but he's carried those weights better than any horse I've ever ridden before," jockey Isaac Lupton said.

"He's just a super little horse, a great stayer and he loves the Ellerslie hill," Lupton said.

"He's got so much stamina and because he's such a good stayer the course really suits him. You need a real stayer when you have to go up that hill three times. It really sorts them out."

At his previous start Hypnotize had carried 70kg to victory in the third of his Pakuranga Hunt Cup wins, a record since metrics were introduced to New Zealand racing in 1974.

Lupton bided his time as he settled Hypnotize back in the 11-horse field and although he got a little closer as the field climbed the hill for the third time, he looked to be in trouble as the leader Fair King, last year's winner, surged clear coming down the hill.

Fair King was a clear leader at the last fence at the top of the straight but, just as Hypnotize had done in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup last month, he pulled out all the stops to score by 3-3/4 lengths.

Hypnotize is trained at Wanganui by former jumps jockey Raymond Connors who shares in the ownership with his father Mark.

NZ Stablehand Dies After Racehorse Kick

Thursday, 07 October 2010 02:45

A New Zealand stablehand has died after being kicked by a top racehorse during the Hawke's Bay spring carnival.

Blair Busby, 37, suffered a ruptured spleen when star mare Katie Lee kicked him while he was in the stalls area during the race meeting in Hastings on Saturday, the New Zealand Herald reported on Thursday.

Busby was taken to hospital, but died on Wednesday afternoon after "complications led to a serious stroke" and he was placed in an induced coma, according to his employer, Te Akau Stud.

"We cannot begin to tell you how devastated we all are today - with the heaviest of hearts we have to tell you that Blair Busby passed peacefully this afternoon (Wednesday)," the stud, based in the North Island's Waikato region, said in a statement on its the website.

The statement said Busby had been accompanying Icepin to the Hawkes Bay races on Saturday when he was kicked by the other horse.

The Waikato Times reported on Thursday that Busby was leading Icepin around the saddling enclosure as a warm-down for the colt after he finished second in the Hawke's Bay Guineas when he was kicked by Katie Lee.

Katie Lee, trained by Graeme Rogerson, is a four-year-old mare who has won eight of her 18 starts, including two Group One features, for prizemoney in excess of $A900,000.

She won the Group Three Traderacks Stakes on Saturday.

Acting senior sergeant Darren Pritchard said there was nothing suspicious in Busby's death, which has been referred to the coroner.

Let's Give Peace A Chance In Australia

Sunday, 29 August 2010 03:45

A Melbourne campaign looks likely for Keep The Peace after her brilliant first-up win in the Mudgway Stakes at Hastings on Saturday.

Keep The Peace only got home by a nose in the Group One 1400m weight-for-age feature but considering it was her first race in more than four months it confirmed her as top-class.

The four-year-old mare's Waikato trainer Shaune Ritchie is still to work out a spring campaign with the horse's owners but is inclined to switch the focus from New Zealand to Melbourne.

"I would like to think she's up to Melbourne but whether she's up to the very best we won't know until we get over there," Ritchie told NZPA.

Two possible targets are the $3 million weight-for-age Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 23 and the $2.5m Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield a week earlier.

Ritchie's preference is the Caulfield Cup because of the handicap conditions and the fact Keep the Peace would likely dodge the best Australian horses in lead-up racing.

"I'm reluctant to take them on just yet," he said.

"She's still going to be in a reasonable place in the handicap and if that's the case then maybe a race like the Caulfield Cup is more her go - there's plenty of time for weight-for-age races later on."

Keep The Peace, owned by former champion Australian jockey Mick Dittman and Queensland-based New Zealand bloodstock agent Paul Bellingham, has only twice been further back than second in 10 starts.

Ridden by James McDonald, Keep The Peace was given a good run on the inner to trail the leader Mufhasa most of the way and then in the straight set out after Fritzy Boy who had taken the lead before the home turn.

Keep The Peace, the fifth favourite at 10-1, got to the lead inside the final 200m on a track rated slow and stuck to her guns to just hold out the favourite Wall Street who ran home strongly after being in the first five all the way.

There were 1-3/4 lengths to Fritzy Boy in third.

Second favourite Mufhasa compounded to finish 10th and trainer Stephen McKee reported he would be sending the horse for a spell.

Miss Maren, who was fractious in the gates before the start, finished last after getting well back and was found to be lame in a hind leg after the race.

Australian mare Illuminates, backing up after her Sydney win at Warwick Farm win seven days earlier, finished 11th - more than 10 lengths from the winner.

NZPA