A Gold Trail Gives Portelli Group One

Friday, 01 January 2010 06:47

Gold Trail Fancied In Group One

Wednesday, 30 December 2009 07:34

Sydney sprinter Gold Trail remains a leading contender with punters on both sides of the Tasman for the Group One Railway Stakes at Ellerslie despite drawing barrier 17 in the New Year's Day feature.

The Gary Portelli-trained five-year-old, who will race as A Gold Trail, will be attempting his first win over 1200 metres and if he proves he can run it out strongly he will stay for the Telegraph Handicap at Trentham in late January.

New Zealand's reigning Horse of the Year, Mufhasa, was at $4.50 on the NZ TAB on Wednesday ahead of Beautiful Girl at $5 and A Gold Trail at $6.50.

TAB Sportsbet had Mufhasa at $4.80 with Beautiful Girl and A Gold Trail both at $5.50.

The Stephen McKee-trained Mufhasa ran fifth in the 2009 Railway before going on to win the Telegraph Handicap.

Gold Trail has won six races, all over 1100 metres, including his most recent start, the Group Two Shorts at Randwick in October.

Portelli has kept him up to the mark with three barrier trials in recent weeks, all of which he has won.

"He is close to the top of his game and if he is going to run 1200 metres, it could be now," Portelli said.

Gold Trail is also Group One-placed over 1100 metres having run third to Nicconi in the Galaxy earlier this year.

Picture - Sportpix

Rich Hill Mile to La Etoile

Friday, 01 January 2010 05:49

Record Payout For Auckland Punter

Wednesday, 30 December 2009 06:32

An Auckland punter has collected a record fixed odds payout from the TAB after turning a $2,850 investment into $776,245 at the Ellerslie races on Monday.

The man - who wishes to remain anonymous - placed a boxed multi-bet over six legs and chose 57 lines at $50 each.

With the first five races in the bag his final pick, Tanha Strike, led for much of his race but was headed in the straight before regaining the lead to win by a head.

Adaline Turns The Tables On Katie Lee

Friday, 01 January 2010 05:27

A pre-race plan to settle close to the pace helped Adaline turn the tables on Katie Lee in the Group Two Royal Stakes at Ellerslie on Friday.

Adaline pushed Katie Lee close in the Eight Carat Classic (1600m) last Saturday, after having to come from behind the dual Group One winner.

Trainer Stephen McKee said he and jockey Leith Innes decided it would be a good idea to settle closer in the Royal Stakes (2000m).

"Leith and I felt there wasn't going to be a lot of speed in the race, so we thought she should be in the first three or four," he said.

"As Katie Lee got back, it turned out to be a good place to be."

McKee said he was confident the Australian-bred filly would back up strongly from her Eight Carat second.

"We thought the extra distance would help us and she ran a great race," he said.

Adaline is owned by McKee's father Trevor, though ownership wasn't in the original plan.

"I bought a couple of horses at Karaka for a couple of owners, but they didn't front up with the money," Trevor McKee said.

"I was left with them and like I normally do, I held on to them."

Adaline and Katie Lee are likely to meet again in the Sir Tristram Classic (2000m) at Te Rapa next month.

Katie Lee was sent back to last and was perhaps disadvantaged by the slower pace but she fought strongly to the line.

The result narrows Katie Lee's lead in the Filly of the Year series by one point to 16.5 points. Adaline is now a clear second.

La Collina just edged Veronica Franco for third.

Daffodil, NZ-breds Bright Spots For 2009

Tuesday, 29 December 2009 04:24

When Daffodil won the Group One AJC Australian Oaks at Randwick in April, it was the first win by a New Zealand-trained horse in the race since Domino in 1990.

The statistic was another example of how tough New Zealand trainers find it to win big races in Australia, but it was a stellar year for NZ-bred horses across the ditch with 18 Group One victories, including nine during the Sydney autumn carnival.

Daffodil was one of the undoubted stars of the season. She gave her 72-year-old trainer Kevin Gray his first Australian Group One win, while the triumph was one of number of highlights for her owner-breeders Garry and Mary Chittick.

Their Waikato Stud scored goals throughout the year through the efforts of stallions Pins, No Excuse Needed, who sired Daffodil, and O'Reilly, who eclipsed the mighty Zabeel as champion sire in NZ for 2008-09.

Daffodil won the Group One Windsor Park Plate in the spring before finishing a good fourth in the Caulfield Cup. She was knocked out of contention in the Melbourne Cup.

The rise of Monaco Consul caught the public's imagination. The three-year-old colt, named after part-owner Owen Glenn's spat with Winston Peters over Glenn's aspiration to be New Zealand's consul in Monaco, was only a one-race winner when he headed to Sydney in the autumn.

He won the Group One Spring Champion Stakes, then triumphed in one of Australian racing's classics, the Victoria Derby for trainers Mike and Paul Moroney.

The success of Monaco Consul and three-year-old Cox Plate winner So You Think heralded the latest boom shuttle sire, former British champion racehorse High Chaparral who stands at Windsor Park Stud.

Mufhasa was named 2008-09 horse of the year after winning the Waikato Sprint and the $1 million Telegraph Handicap. He couldn't replicate the form in the big Australian races, but was being prepared at year's end for another hit on the Telegraph in January.

Katie Lee quickly became a darling of the track late in the year. One of the country's best juveniles, she became the first horse to win both the One Thousand and Two Thousand Guineas double since their inception at Riccarton in 1973.

She had to do it the hard way too, with jockey Opie Bosson having to chart his way out of plenty of traffic problems in both races, causing trainers Debbie and Graeme Rogerson and co-owner Sir Patrick Hogan a few nervous moments.

Awapuni trainer Jeff Lynds had a good year with Vosnee Romanee causing a boilover to win the $1.2 million Kelt Capital Classic and potential star Wall Street proving too strong for a good quality field in the Group Three Coupland's Bakeries Mile at Riccarton in November.

John Wheeler took out the Group One Queensland Derby with Court Ruler and had a golden run of victories over both the flat and fences in the winter. He was also an outspoken critic of Racing Victoria's decision to can jumps racing from 2011, a decision which is still being fought.

Sadly, 2008 AJC Australian Derby winner Nom Du Jeu had to be retired after failing to overcome an injury, but trainers Murray and Bjorn Baker look to have a worthy successor in Harris Tweed who won the Group Two Tulloch Stakes in Sydney then was an unlucky fifth in the Melbourne Cup.

Mark Walker's impressive CV in the training ranks was enhanced when he easily took out the 2008-09 premiership and his stocks only improved when James McDonald became his stable jockey.

McDonald, only 17, is still an apprentice but won the jockeys' premiership after a stirring battle with Sam Spratt.

Spratt's win on Mufhasa in the Telegraph was all the more poignant as six years earlier she had suffered nasty head injuries in a fall at Trentham, which resulted in some years away from riding.

Popular horse Sir Slick never seemed out of the wars and took over racing's soap opera status from jockey Lisa Cropp.

After a disastrous campaign in Melbourne in 2008, he returned to a spectacular win in the Thorndon Mile in January.

He was incredibly brave after running six times in six weeks during the Brisbane winter carnival, racking up some good placings, but his owners Graeme Nicholson and Barry Brown fell out over trainer Nicholson's wish to campaign Sir Slick in Australia in the spring and the matter ended in court, with Nicholson paying Brown out for his share.

Sir Slick was scratched from the Cox Plate when vets said he was lame, much to Nicholson's contrary opinion, returned home and won again before a bizarre incident in which glass shards were found in the horse's feed bucket.

Mystery unsolved, but Slick was unhurt and is back racing.

Cropp's four-year legal battle over a positive test to methamphetamine finally came to an end this year.

She was disqualified from riding for nine months in June, fined $7,500 and ordered to pay $92,000 in costs. She has not paid that amount and is on New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing's forfeit list, so there will be no return to the saddle until that is paid.

Honours in the jumping world were shared. Jo Rathbone was the top jockey in the 2008-09 premiership, while Richard Eynon won the jumps season prize.

Off the track it was a tough year. While a select group of million-dollar events, including the $2.2 million NZ Derby, kept their stakes, the prizemoney for lower-rated events plunged as officials took the razor to stakes in the wake of the recession and a drop in turnover.

Eyebrows were raised when the Racing Board brought in Andrew Brown from Britain as its new chief at a reported salary of around $900,000, some $400,000 more than his predecessor.

Because of the falling revenues, Brown quickly instigated a $12 million cut in operating costs, with some redundancies. By year's end he had introduced a second racing channel, giving the option of wall-to-wall racing or more in-depth coverage of feature races and meetings.

Late in the year, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, with Racing Board backing, advanced the One Racing concept, advocating a merger between the gallops, harness and greyhound codes, citing potential savings of $11 million.

But Harness Racing NZ and Greyhound NZ Racing saw it as a power grab by the galloping folk, leaving the stage set for a political battle in 2010. Happy New Year indeed.

Pictures - Sportpix & Quentin Lang

NZ Juvenile Cellarmaster Surprises Owner

Friday, 01 January 2010 03:15

Racing owner Judge John Clapham is a little surprised Cellarmaster is proving to be one of the best juveniles of the season.

Cellarmaster won his third race from five starts, and his second black-type race in a row, when he led all the way to take out the Group Three Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on Friday.

In doing so, he dented a couple of reputations, notably that of Katie Lee's half-sister Banchee, beaten into second by a length.

Clapham, a retired High Court judge, bred Victoria Derby winner Second Coming from the same family and Cellarmaster is also a half-brother to another Victoria Derby placegetter, Our Bahare.

"Cellarmaster should be a mile and a half (2400m) horse," Clapham said.

"But Dubawi is a great sire - he beat Oratorio in a Group One in Europe - and Cellarmaster is quite a mature horse."

Cellarmaster was retained by Clapham after he was withdrawn from the Karaka sales last year, so he is not eligible for the Karaka Million at the end of January.

Clapham is selling a Keeper half-sister to Cellarmaster at the Select Sale at Karaka next month.

Cellarmaster was aided on Friday by a good ride from Michael Coleman, who did not go hard out in front. The colt was able to run the last 600m quickly, making it hard for runners coming from further off the pace.

The pace probably didn't help the favourite Banchee, who took some time to wind up. She is a contender for the Karaka Million.

Everlasting was slightly unlucky in third, just ahead of Big River, who came from last on the turn.

Cox Plate Aim For Vosne Romanee

Monday, 28 December 2009 05:43

The 2010 Cox Plate is on the agenda for underrated New Zealander Vosne Romanee who has notched two Group One wins this season.

Trainer Jeff Lynds said he hoped to give the gelding his chance at the weight-for-age championship.

"We would have liked to think about it this season after the Kelt but he wasn't nominated," Lynds said.

"But Miss Maren (the Australian raider who ran third in the Kelt) finished second in the Mackinnon, which showed he should be up to that class."

Vosne Romanee was a 50-1 winner of the New Zealand's major race, the Kelt Capital Stakes in September, and was sent out at better than 25-1 in Saturday's Zabeel Classic.

Having just his second outing since his Kelt triumph, Vosne Romanee made a useful field in the Group One contest look second-rate, accelerating away quickly to down Red Ruler by 2-1/4 lengths.

Down the field were a number of Group One winners including boom three-year-old Monaco Consul who was seemingly undone by the hard track which suited the winner.

In the more immediate future, Lynds said he would seek further weight-for-age 2000m Group One success in the International Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa in February and the New Zealand Stakes (2000m) back at Ellerslie in March.

The victory took Vosne Romanee's earnings to $1.08 million, a great return for Martinborough winery owners Ian and Alana Smart.

"We're really thrilled. It's great for a family from Wairarapa to come up to the big smoke and take on the big boys," Ian Smart said.

Vosne Romanee is the second horse the Smarts have raced. They bred him from the Morcon mare Madison Avenue, a mare they bought into some years ago.

He was put up for sale at Karaka but bidding did not reach their reserve and was instead sent back to Lynds to train.

Vosne Romanee is named for a village in Burgundy, France that is well known for producing outstanding wines.

Hurdle Schooling Sharpens Ex-Aussie

Thursday, 31 December 2009 06:54

A few quick jumps in training has helped sharpen up former Australian sprinter Kiloton for the Group One Railway Stakes at Ellerslie on Friday.

Kiloton was transferred to Matamata trainer John Sargent six weeks ago in an attempt to get some Group One black type into him before he heads to stud in Manawatu.

Since then Sargent, one of New Zealand's leading trainers, has used several techniques to ready Kiloton - including jumping some obstacles.

Jumping horses in training is not uncommon for flat horses in New Zealand but rare in Australia, and it surprised his Australian part-owner Kerry Grocott.

Kiloton, by Spinning World, won five of his 14 races in Australia and was twice third in Group Three sprints.

He was originally raced solely by Grocott before a half-share was bought in him by New Zealanders with the aim of standing him at Wellfield Stud in Manawatu at the end of his career.

Since his arrival Kiloton has won a trial comfortably at Cambridge and was at \$15 on the TAB fixed odds market.

"He's drawn 13, which isn't normally great at Ellerslie, but if the ballots come out he will start at 10," Sargent said.

"That's usually about as wide as you'd want to be for the Railway, but he does settle off the pace so it won't be too bad."

Sargent also lines up Ruud Van Slaats in the 1200m Railway but said she may find the race a bit sharp for her.

"She's coming back from 1600 metres. She should be more ready for 1200 metres in the Telegraph Handicap (at Trentham in late January) but she does have class on her side," Sargent said.

Sargent said the race had opened up with the withdrawal before nominations of boom mare Wealth Princess. Reigning Horse of the Year Mufhasa was the \$4.50 favourite.

"The Aussie A Gold Trail was probably the hardest to beat but he's drawn 17, which will be tough," Sargent said.

Sargent also has two chances in the rich Group Two City of Auckland Cup (2400m), Red Ruler and So Royal.

Red Ruler was a solid second to Vosne Romanee in the Zabeel Classic (2000m) on Boxing Day and drops to 54kg tomorrow.

"He came through the weight-for-age race beautifully and drops 5kg so he should be a great chance," Sargent said of the \$5 shot.

"So Royal is a very good lightweight and has picked up well since running seventh in the Manawatu Cup, which was her first race since the New Zealand Cup."

Sargent also has good prospects in the Group Three Eclipse Stakes (1200m) for two-year-olds with Banchee, the winner of her only start.

"She's a very promising filly, a half-sister to Katie Lee, and she's already won at Ellerslie which is a big help," he said.

"This will probably be her final race before the Karaka Million at the end of January."

In other Ellerslie highlights tomorrow, Katie Lee will try to extend her Filly of the Year Series lead in the Group Two Royal Stakes (2000m), and an open field contests the Group Two Rich Hill Mile (1600m).

Derby Takes On More Competitive Look

Sunday, 27 December 2009 04:30

The New Zealand Derby has taken on a more competitive look following the Boxing day meeting at Ellerslie.

Victoria Derby winner Monaco Consul eased to joint favourite in the race after appearing to be ill at ease on the firm track when he failed in the weight-for-age Zabeel Classic (2000m).

Joining him at the top of the betting for the Derby in March was Zarzuela following her last-stride victory in the Great Northern Guineas (2100m) over Monaco Consul's stablemate Prince Of Wales.

In addition, Katie Lee reminded racegoers she wouldn't lack for courage if she lined up in the Derby with her victory in the Eight Carat Classic (1600m).

Zarzuela had been a little unlucky when second to Sophia Babe at her previous start and she looked destined for second again when Prince Of Wales stole a break halfway down the straight in the Group Two guineas.

But once fully wound up she made ground quickly on Prince Of Wales and got up on the line to win by a head.

Zarzuela's trainer Mark Walker was sure she would excel even more once she got to the Derby trip of 2400 metres.

"She's a promising filly who's untapped at this stage," Walker said.

"She'll have a week in the paddock now and we'll hit the big time in the autumn with her.

"When she gets to 2400 metres she should be well placed."

Runner-up Prince Of Wales lost no followers for the New Zealand Derby.

He perhaps got to the front too early after jockey Michael Coleman moved forward at the 600m to avoid being pocketed by Zarzuela, but showed his class after two unlucky previous runs.

"Michael said he was starting to pull up when he got to the front," co-trainer Paul Moroney said.

"He's a very good colt who will get a good race one day, but Zarzuela's a very good filly though."

Katie Lee is not a certain Derby runner as her owner, Sir Patrick Hogan of Cambridge Stud, wants to sew up the Filly of the Year series first.

She extended her lead in the series to 17.5 points when she narrowly held out Adeline in the Eight Carat Classic, and could extend it further if she wins the Royal Stakes (2000m) at Ellerslie on New Year's Day.

Sir Patrick said she would not contest the Desert Gold Stakes (2000m) at Trentham at the end of January but was likely to run in the Sir Tristram Classic (2000m) in February.

"If she's sewn up the Filly of the Year and we think she can run 2400 metres, then if we think the fillies are just as good as the colts and geldings, we might as well go for the Derby ahead of the Oaks," he said.