Hypnotize Leaves Rivals In A Trance
- Sunday, 22 August 2010 09:45
Trainer and part owner Ray Conners is re-thinking his decision to retire Hypnotize after the remarkable jumper became the first horse to win the Pakuranga Hunt Cup Steeplechase three times in its 136-year history.
Hi previous victories came in 2007 and 2008 while he finished furth in the race last year.
Ellerslie is also the venue of New Zealand's richest jumps race, the $85,000 Great Northern Steeplechase and that will be Hypnotize's next assignment on September 4.
Just last week it was reported Conners was adamant Hypnotize would be retired after the Great Northern at the grand age of 11.
But on Saturday night he was playing his cards closer to his chest.
"You never know," Conners said.
His father Mark, who shares in the ownership, said the Great Northern would be the horse's swan song before adding "at this stage".
Mark Conners said retirement had been considered for Hypnotize after last year's Great Northern but following a second placing regular jockey Isaac Lupton suggested a re-think.
"If he had won he probably would have been retired. But he ran second and Isaac said don't retire him...bring him back,".
Hypnotize took out the Great Northern in 2007 and 2008 and the Conners' are mindful that only one other horse has won the race three times - Hunterville who completed the hat-trick in 1985.
Lupton is almost making the Pakuranga Hunt Cup his own. He has ridden Hypnotize in each of his three wins in the race and has two further successes aboard Bart in 2005 and Real Tonic in 2006. He has had nine rides in the race for five wins, a second, a third and a fourth.
Hypnotize, a gelding by Yamanin Vital, cost $20,000 at a 2001 sale for two-year-olds.
Firebolt Chasing Epsom Handicap
- Wednesday, 18 August 2010 04:59
A deliberate decision to play a low-key role with Kiwi galloper Firebolt during the winter in Queensland could reap rewards in Sydney this spring.
Trainer Roger James plans to send Firebolt across the Tasman for the Group One Epsom Handicap at Randwick on October 1 if the five-year-old comes up this preparation in his homeland.
"He's back in work and is thriving," James said.
"If I'm happy with him he'll go to Sydney for the Epsom."
James plans to start Firebolt in the Group One Mudgway Stakes at Hastings later this month but is concerned bad weather could disrupt his schedule.
"I'm looking at the Mudgway Stakes with him here and if not there's a race a week later at Ellerslie," he said.
"The weather is a bit of a concern at the moment and I have to just trial him here before I send him to Sydney.
"He should get a reasonable weight in a race like the Epsom."
The Group One Mudgway Stakes (1400m) will be run on August 28.
Firebolt started only four times during the Brisbane winter carnival but left with a huge reputation after two wins.
The son of Stravinsky looked capable of winning in much stronger company after scoring an all-the-way win in restricted class over 1630 metres at Doomben in May.
He was then judged by stewards to have been afforded a fair start after tailing the field home in the Listed Strawberry Road (1600m) won by Our Lukas at Eagle Farm on June 12.
Firebolt was on his best barrier behaviour next appearance when runner-up to Pennacchio in the Listed Centenary Mile (1600m) at Eagle Farm in June before blowing his rivals away in an 1800-metre class six victory at the same track on July 10.
Meanwhile, Queensland three-year-old Buffering arrived safely in Sydney on Wednesday for his assignment in the Group Three Up And Coming Stakes (1200m) at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
"He arrived at Grahame Begg's stables about 3am and had a 45-minute stopover at Kempsey on the way down," trainer Rob Heathcote said.
"He's in excellent order. He had his final gallop at Eagle farm on Tuesday before he went down and he'll only need pacework before Saturday.
"The track is slow for Warwick Farm and more rain is forecast for Friday but he'll be competitive."
Buffering, an impressive first-up winner at Eagle Farm on August 11, could stay on in Sydney for the next month's Listed Heritage Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill or head to Melbourne for the Group Two Danehill Stakes (1200m) at Flemington.
Picture: Ross Stevenson
Jason Collett Looking At Sydney Return
- Sunday, 27 June 2010 08:45
New Zealand apprentice Jason Collett hopes to return to ride in Sydney this year and victory in Saturday's Tauranga feature race can only help his cause.
Collett got Montjee home by a nose in the Kiwifruit Cup (2100m) less than a week after returning from Australia where he rode for one of Sydney's top trainers, New Zealander Chris Waller.
Collett, 19, had two weeks with Waller as part of a New Zealand apprenticeship award and made a mark.
"From about 20 rides I had two winners on the Sapphire Coast and was about a nose from a hat-trick," Collett told NZPA.
Collett said Waller was keen for him to return in September for about two months.
"It was his idea," Collett said.
"I've been keeping in contact with him and I'm hopeful of going back towards the end of winter.
"I rode in Sydney as well and it was a great experience against their top riders."
Collett is currently fighting out second place with Rosie Myers in the New Zealand apprentices' championship with James McDonald a runaway leader and also topping the senior ranks.
Myers will be having her own Australian experience this week when she travels to Melbourne for a seven day stint with Patrick Payne.
She will ride at Geelong on Tuesday and also at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
Collett, 19, has been riding for just two years.
He is apprenticed to his father Richard and is one of three apprentices currently riding with the name Collett. The other two are his sister Natasha and cousin Samantha.
Zabeel Wins Centaine Award
- Tuesday, 03 August 2010 04:30
Champion New Zealand sire Zabeel has earned yet another honour after being announced the winner of the Centaine Award for the past season.
Established in 2008-09 when it was won by O'Reilly, the award is based on the sire whose NZ-conceived progeny have accumulated the highest stakes earnings worldwide for the season.
Zabeel took the award with the accumulation of $NZ10,161,878 in worldwide progeny earnings for the season.
Such a tally ultimately afforded a $NZ76,337 buffer over Waikato Stud's O'Reilly.
Sir Patrick Hogan, proprietor of Cambridge Stud which stands Zabeel, said he was delighted the 24-year-old had been recognised.
"Zabeel's shareholders and I are delighted that his name will be on The Centaine Award," Sir Patrick told NZ Thoroughbred Marketing.
"He does not have a lot of time left and he deserves to be on the award, through the sheer fact that he has been distinguished on so many other awards in Australia and New Zealand."
Zabeel has produced 41 individual Group One winners in Australasia, four short of his own sire Sir Tristram's southern hemisphere record.
Former Kelt Stakes Has Big Purse Drop
- Wednesday, 23 June 2010 06:59
New Zealand's top weight-for-age race, formerly known as the Kelt Capital Stakes, will have a massive drop in prizemoney this year.
The race, to be known as the Spring Classic, will have a purse of $NZ250,000.
Two years ago the Kelt was New Zealand's richest race at $NZ2 million but it dropped to $NZ1.2 million last year.
Hawke's Bay Racing and the race's sponsor Sam Kelt have parted ways this year and the club has settled on a much-reduced stake for the Group One 2040m race, which will be run at Hastings on October 2.
The two lead-up races for the Kelt, the Mudgway Partsworld Stakes (1400m) and the Windsor Park Plate (1600m) will be run on August 28 and September 18 respectively.
Both are Group One races and will have stakes of $NZ200,000.
Zabeel In Rare Public Appearance
- Sunday, 25 July 2010 08:30
Champion sire Zabeel made a rare public appearance at New Zealand's famous Cambridge Stud on Sunday, being paraded with stallions Keeper, Lucky Unicorn and new addition Tavistock.
The rising 24-year-old is this season's leading sire of Group One winners in Australasia with four - Efficient (Turnbull Stakes), Jessicabeel (Sydney Cup) Zabrasive (Rosehill Guineas) and Zavite (Auckland Cup).
He will cover a restricted book of mares in the upcoming spring and is usually kept behind closed doors when visitors arrive at the stud.
Zabeel is the sire of 41 individual Group One winners, just four short of his own sire Sir Tristram's southern hemisphere record.
He has also sired 132 individual stakes winners.
Sir Tristram was retired in 1995 at the age of 23 but Cambridge proprietor Sir Patrick Hogan expects Zabeel to be able to continue for two or three more years.
Trained by Colin Hayes to win the Australian Guineas in the autumn of 1990, Zabeel was purchased by Hogan the following year as the heir apparent to Sir Tristram.
Zabeel was an instant success, producing champion Octagonal in his first crop.
Octagonal won the Cox Plate as a three-year-old in 1995 before finishing a narrow second in the Victoria Derby. He came back in the autumn to claim Sydney's triple crown of the Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and AJC Australian Derby.
A couple of years later, Might And Power became the second Australian champion produced by Zabeel when he won the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Jezabeel gave him another Melbourne Cup the following year while Efficient added his name to the famous race in 2007.
Zabeel's enduring popularity was in evidence at this year's Easter sale when a filly by the super sire fetched $1.3 million.
Randwick trainer John O'Shea prepares both Jessicabeel and Zabrasive with both to be set on the path towards this year's Melbourne Cup.
O'Shea bought both horses in New Zealand specifically to target staying races including the Melbourne Cup.
Jessicabeel is among the top fancies in early Melbourne Cup markets which are headed by VRC Oaks winner Faint Perfume.
Miss Keepsake Likely To Miss Melbourne
- Sunday, 13 June 2010 08:15
Queensland Oaks winner Miss Keepsake, an unlucky third in Saturday's Queensland Derby, is likely to bypass the rich Melbourne spring carnival.
Her New Zealand trainer Andrew Scott said he favoured giving the filly a decent break before getting her ready for New Zealand's summer carnival and the Sydney autumn.
"Chris Munce thought she would be up to the Caulfield Cup, but it is tough after a Brisbane carnival to get them ready for the Melbourne spring," Scott told NZPA.
"We will bring her home and probably give her a decent break and crank her up for the summer."
He said her initial target might be the Auckland Christmas carnival, with the Group One Zabeel Classic (2000m) an attractive proposition.
"Getting her to Sydney in the autumn would be the next plan of attack."
Miss Keepsake lost no admirers in Saturday's Group One Derby, getting held up several times in the straight before flashing home for third behind decisive winner Dariana and Kutchinsky.
Ironically, Dariana was left in the gates when Miss Keepsake won the Oaks a week earlier and then got a perfect run with Michael Rodd aboard on Saturday, claiming the race by 4-1/2 lengths.
"That's the luck in racing. We had the luck the week before and Dariana had the luck this week," said Scott.
"One of the others stopped too quickly early in the straight and stopped all our momentum and when she got going again, she got held up a couple of times again.
"She probably wouldn't have beaten Dariana but she would likely have finished second."
Still, it's been an amazing week for Scott, who claimed his first Group One winner as a solo trainer in the Oaks, as well as winning with Pennacchio on the same card and gaining the Listed Castletown Stakes at Foxton on Monday with Extra Explosive.
"It's been a very exciting time," he said.
Pennacchio is to contest the Group One Winter Stakes at Eagle Farm (1400m) on June 26 and will be a good chance if the track is wet, Scott said.
It was a tough day for the New Zealand horses at Eagle Farm, as they missed the major prizes, but the expats were in great form.
Sydney-based Chris Waller continued his amazing run when Pressday won the group TJ Smith Stakes (1600m) for two-year-olds.
End Of The Line For Top NZ Mare Daffodil
- Sunday, 04 July 2010 08:59
Triple Group One-winning mare Daffodil has been retired.
The 2009 AJC Australian Oaks winner will be mated with Waikato Stud stallion Pins in the coming breeding season, the stud's Mark Chittick said.
The Chittick family own the No Excuse Needed mare.
"She has achieved a great deal on the track, winning Group Ones in Australia and New Zealand and she took a little longer to show a spring in her step after her last campaign, following a bit of wear and tear," Chittick said on the stud's website.
"With stakes as they are, she would now need to win a race like the Caulfield Cup and a good colt by Pins might bring a similar result."
Daffodil, who was out of the Chitticks' smart mare Spring, was trained by Kevin Gray at Palmerston North throughout her career.
She won the Group One Thousand Guineas as a three-year-old and looked a certainty beaten in the New Zealand Oaks when her gate failed to open properly. She roared home for fourth.
She was set for the AJC Australian Oaks in the autumn and cruised away with the 2400m classic, relishing the cut out of the Randwick track in the hands of Hugh Bowman.
Last spring, she won the Group One Windsor Park Plate (1600m) at Hastings.
She was fourth in the Kelt Stakes and then ran a top fourth in the Caulfield Cup. She received a chequered run in the Melbourne Cup, finishing midfield.
She appeared four times earlier this year with a first-up win at New Plymouth and a placing in the Group One Otaki-Maori weight-for-age before a final Australian visit that resulted in a close fourth in the Group One Ranvet Stakes and a fifth in the Group One BMW.
Daffodil won eight races and was placed six times from 26 starts for prizemoney of $A963,667.
Picture: Sportpix
Waddell Tests Postive To Ice
- Monday, 07 June 2010 04:25
Leading New Zealand jockey Jason Waddell has been stood down indefinitely after testing positive to the illicit drug methamphetamine, commonly known as "ice".
Asshewaqua Struggles In NZ
- Sunday, 27 June 2010 14:00
Former Australian mare Asshewaqua finished down the track in a stakes race at Tauranga (New Zealand) on Saturday.
Owned by the same connections who raced her with Tony Noonan, Asshewaqua has had four starts in New Zealand for just the one victory.
The six-year-old registered her lone success at her third start in the NZ$35,000 Open Handicap (1400m) at Ellerslie on June 5 before contesting the NZ$45,000 Listed Ingham-Sears Mercedes-Benz Tauranga Classic (1400m) against fillies and mares on Saturday only to finish eighth in the ten-horse field.
Finishing ten lengths from Sacha on a heavy track, it was the second time Asshewaqua has failed in stakes company in New Zealand.
Asshewaqua at her New Zealand debut finished ninth of 14 starters behind Irish Colleen in the NZ$45,000 Listed Rotorua Stakes (1400m).
The daughter of Black Hawk is no stranger to travelling. She won five races (3 in Victoria & 2 in New South Wales) and over $200,000 in prizemoney from 29 starts whilst plying her trade in Australia.
Picture: Sportpix
Mark Walker Claims 17 Year Old Record
- Sunday, 06 June 2010 04:28
New Zealand trainer Mark Walker says he feels humbled to have claimed the long-standing record of Dave and Paul O'Sullivan of 104 wins in a season.
The O'Sullivans' record had stood since the 1992-93 season.
Walker equalled it with the win by Change Of Heart at Wanganui on Saturday and went to 105 with Flying Fulton later on the program.
"I am in awe and feel very humble to have broken a record set by the O'Sullivans," Walker said.
The O'Sullivans had congratulated him on the feat, which he appreciated, he said.
Walker is a clear leader by 30 wins on the New Zealand trainers' ladder this season and a fifth premiership title looks a formality.
The O'Sullivans reached the 100-win milestone three times and Walker has now achieved it twice.
Graeme Rogerson was the first to attain it with 101 wins in 1989-90.
Walker said he was deeply grateful to the staff at Te Akau Stables at both Matamata and Rangiora for their hard work and owners for their support in helping to achieve the record.
He said the record would be the highlight of a season in which surprisingly the stable did not notch a Group One success.
The return to form of Flying Fulton, winner of the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes last season, made it even more satisfying as the horse's form this season had not been good.
"Some horses take a long time to get over being gelded and that seems to be the case with him," Walker said.
"We have had a few hiccups with him, but normally if they have a quiet season they come back to it."
As to the lack of Group One success, Walker was philosophical.
"We were unlucky in a couple, we probably should have won the 1000 Guineas (Our Ella Belle 3rd) and the (NZ) Oaks (Zarzuela 3rd)," he said.
"I always say that over your career luck evens out and we have probably been lucky to have won a couple of Group Ones in other seasons that we should not have."
Walker said he did not want to comment on persistent rumours he would relocate to Singapore at some stage next season.
Te Akau principal David Ellis said the milestone was an outstanding achievement by Walker and all the staff.
"I grew up watching and learning from the O'Sullivan family," Ellis said.
"The contribution that they have made to New Zealand racing has been huge in every meaning of the word.
"To beat any record that they have established is a truly wonderful credit to the whole Te Akau team."