Chaos In Riccarton Steeple
- Thursday, 04 June 2009 00:00
The only thing certain after the Enfield Maiden Steeplechase at Riccarton on Thursday was that Nana had won.
Behind her was chaos.
Of the six other starters, five fell.
Two jockeys broke collarbones in the falls and two of the fallen horses were remounted by jockeys, though one was remounted by a jockey who had fallen off another horse.
The only horse other than Nana not to fall was Whats His Name, but he didn't jump the last two fences.
It took stipendiary stewards 30 minutes to sort the mess out, before declaring Nana the winner by a staggering 128 lengths from Whats His Name who was able to retain second because patrolling stewards had signalled to his jockey Tom Hazlett to avoid jumping the last two fences because of the danger of fallen horses.
What His Name had been plodding in fifth place 100m from the fourth horse with three fences to jump.
When Mala Strana and About Time, who were fighting out second place, fell at the second last fence, he was a distant third.
A tired Son Of The Oak did not jump the second last but attempted the last fence and fell, leaving Whats His Name second.
About Time's jockey Raymond Eynon remounted and finished third, though he did not jump the last fence after stewards directed Eynon not to.
Ice Pack crossed the line fourth, but was disqualified for not completing the course correctly. He was brought down in the race's first fall but was remounted by George Strickland who had fallen from Mala Strana.
"That was a bit weird, we are not sure why that happened. It added to the confusion," presiding steward Stewart Ching said.
The result was declared with no fourth placing, meaning the first 4 dividend for backing the first four horses home in order, was paid out with any horse in fourth place.
Jockeys Stewart Moir and Daniel Stackhouse were taken to hospital with suspected broken collarbones.
Son Of The Oak was treated for stress. None of the other horses was injured.
Stewards had their own stress to contend with.
"Everyone was so far apart and the distances made it difficult to review it all on the cameras. But we had people on the track watching, so we were able to do it the proper way, thank goodness," Ching said.
"It was one of the more bizarre races I have had to deal with."
NZPA WGT
Kelt Capital Stakes Has Prizemoney Cut
- Thursday, 28 May 2009 00:00
Prizemoney for New Zealand's weight-for-age championship, the Kelt Capital Stakes, will be slashed by $NZ800,000 ($A635,021).
The Group One Kelt (2040m) has been worth $NZ2 million ($A1.59 million) for the past two years but will drop to $NZ1.2 million ($A952,532) on October 3, with less dramatic cuts also possible for the club's two other Group One spring races.
Hawke's Bay Racing manager John McGifford said it was a disappointing step to take but there was simply less money to go around in the racing industry.
With the gaming dollar down and the TAB payout expected to be well down from previous years, stakes cuts are likely to be implemented at clubs across the country for the new season starting August 1.
McGifford said the club had been committed, along with local sponsor Kept Capital, to try to run the race at $NZ2 million ($A1.59 million) for a third year.
"But we just need to be realistic about what we can afford," he said.
Kelt Capital had investigated plugging the funding gap itself but "the hole was too big".
The cut will also raise questions as to whether the interest from Australian owners and trainers will wane.
"I suppose all we can do is put it out there and see what they think," McGifford said.
The Hawke's Bay spring racing carnival also features $NZ250,000 ($A198,444) Group One lead-up races - the Mudgway Partsworld Stakes and Stoney Bridge Stakes.
McGifford said it was likely they could also be trimmed and decisions were likely to be made in the next couple of weeks.
While the news was not good for owners and trainers chasing the big money, he said he doubted it would dampen the public's enthusiasm for what has become one of the country's biggest race days.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) spokesman Simon Cooper said clubs had over the past couple of years been contributing more than the minimum for stakes money, but that could change.
"It's up to the clubs at the end of the day, but I'd guess some of those races will be on the minimum," he said.
Cooper said NZTR had been liaising with clubs about funding issues and more details needed to be ironed out before being signed off by the New Zealand Racing Board.
Brisbane Campaign Awaits Veloce Bella
- Sunday, 26 April 2009 00:00
A Queensland winter campaign awaits New Zealand mare Veloce Bella after she silenced her critics with victory in the Group Two Travis Stakes at Te Rapa.
Saturday's 2000m weight-for-age race was Veloce Bella's first win for 19 months.
In that time she had endured a tendon injury and more recently had been frustrating punters with a tendency to slow starts.
Those factors made the Te Rapa win all the more sweet for trainer Mark Brosnan.
"It was great to see her back in winning form," Brosnan told NZPA.
"A lot of people, the press included, have been writing her off."
Veloce Bella suffered a tendon injury in 2007 which Brosnan said was serious enough to have him thinking it could end her racing career.
"I did think it could well have been," he said.
She was confined to her stable and a small yard for two months and it was a total of 13 months before she returned to racing.
Brosnan said the tendon injury had not caused further concern.
"Fortunately we've had no problems with her legs, we've just had other problems," he said in reference to the slow starts she had been making.
That all stemmed from a barrier mishap in the Anniversary Handicap at Trentham in January.
"From that day onwards she didn't want to jump," Brosnan said.
But despite losing many lengths at the start Veloce Bella still managed third placings in the Group One International Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa in February and the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (1600m) at Te Aroha this month.
Brosnan said it was just a matter of time for Veloce Bella to regain her confidence and she began on terms with the rest of the field on Saturday.
She still settled well back in the running but the $5.10 second favourite swept down the middle of the track in the home straight to beat the favourite Culminate by three-quarters of a length on a dead rated track.
Brosnan is keen to send Veloce Bella to Brisbane for the likes of the Doomben Cup (2020m) on May 16 and the Brisbane Cup (2400m) on June 6.
NZPA WGT
Jungle Rocket Overcharged, Trainer Says
- Wednesday, 06 May 2009 00:00
Trainer Jeff McVean says New Zealand Oaks winner Jungle Rocket's tilt at the Queensland Oaks is still on track and she may even run in the Queensland Derby a week later.
Jungle Rocket disappointed in her first Australian start, running 12th in the Listed Gold Coast Bracelet (1800m) on Saturday.
McVean thought she was ready to run a good race in her first start since winning the NZ Oaks at Trentham on March 14.
But she was slowly away, raced ungenerously, and was then blocked for a run in the straight.
"She was more fractious than usual and just too fresh," McVean said.
"She was blocked everywhere in the straight and after the line, she wanted to go another round."
McVean said he probably should have given her a race before Saturday.
"But there is plenty ahead for her. When she gets up to a longer distance and a bigger track, everything should pan out," he said.
McVean's daughter Katie is looking after the filly in Queensland, with the work program being stepped up this week.
Jungle Rocket will race next in the Group Three Doomben Roses (2020m) on May 16 and, safely through that, in the $A400,000 Group One Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm on May 30.
"She does seem to thrive on racing so who knows, if she does well in the Oaks we will look at carrying on to the Derby a week later," McVean said.
"It's only a slight chance at this stage, but we will see how she goes."
James McDonald is likely to retain the ride in the Doomben Roses, McVean said.
New Zealand will have a strong hand in the Oaks with Awesome Planet, Can't Keeper Down, Ekstreme, Juice, La Etoile, Prix Du Sang, Revoke and Walk In The Park also either in Queensland or booked to travel there in the next week.
McDonald To Join Mark Walker's Stable
- Friday, 17 April 2009 00:00
New Zealand jockeys' premiership leader James McDonald will join trainers' premiership leader Mark Walker as stable rider next season.
McDonald, 17, has not ridden for Walker before but said he was looking forward to the challenge.
"It's fantastic. I can't wait to get started," McDonald told The Waikato Times.
"I'm looking forward to the opportunity and hopefully it can lead to a few big successes."
McDonald is in his second season of riding and on Friday was five wins clear of Sam Spratt, with 88 wins, on the jockeys' premiership and 22 ahead of Buddy Lammas on the apprentices' premiership.
Walker, who is a clear leader on the trainers' win table with 82 this season, said McDonald was very young to be a stable rider but had "enormous potential".
Previous stable jockeys at Te Akau Racing included Opie Bosson and Michael Walker and they would continue to be used along with current stable apprentice Samantha Collett.
"They'll still get their rides, but I wanted someone to call on to get No 1 pick and vice versa," Walker said.
"Opie couldn't consistently make the weight for a lot of our team and we had to chop and change riders. We wanted consistency back in the stable."
McDonald said last month he had turned down an offer to join Gai Waterhouse's Sydney stable.
McKee's Reflect on Sunline's Incredible Life
- Friday, 01 May 2009 00:00
It is with great sadness that the McKee family on Friday announces that champion racemare Sunline has lost her long battle with Laminitis.
Despite exhausting all avenues to save her, the family was left with no option but to have her humanely put down.
World Laminitis expert Ric Redden DVM from the USA, who has 35 years experience dealing with the equine illness visited Sunline and the McKee family on Monday. "It was Ric's advice that she had lost all quality of life due to the debilitating disease," said co-owner Trevor McKee.
Son and co-owner Stephen McKee also commented; "She was a huge influence on our lives and we will miss her terribly. We have taken the only decision available, acting on the best advice that could be obtained worldwide. Sunline will forever be a part of Australasian racing folklore and it has been a privilege being associated with such a champion, who we will always consider a part of our family."
Sunline will live on in the hearts and souls of all those whose lives she has touched - long after she is gone. She was a symbol of hope, courage, greatness and worth. And watching her be her best made us all want to be better. It was one of the reasons we all loved her so much and were so captivated by her.
Sunline was the winner of 13 Group I races, banking a phenomenal $NZ13,700,607 from success in 32 of her 48 starts.
Her final resting place will be at New Zealand's premier racecourse, Ellerslie, where a memorial will be erected in her honour.
Media Release - Auckland Racing Club/McKee family
Phar Lap Statue Gets 'thumbs Up' In NZ
- Tuesday, 14 April 2009 00:00
Phar Lap, the big-hearted horse that rewrote racing's history books nearly 80 years ago, has been reproduced as a life-sized clay statue before being cast in bronze to stand outside a New Zealand racecourse.
One of New Zealand's greatest trainers, Colin Jillings, 78, who retired in 2004, has checked out the sculpture in Auckland and given it the thumbs up.
The huge Timaru-bred horse won 37 of his 51 starts before his premature death aged five.
"I am amazed," Jillings said of the clay impression of the 17.1 hand horse by sculptor Joanne Sullivan-Gessler, in her Auckland studio.
"This sculpture of Phar Lap is not a horse standing still. He is at full gallop and the flare of the nostril, the muscle tone, the sinews all strained out to full gallop, is exceptional.
"Joanne needs 100 per cent marks for this, it is marvellous, marvellous."
The statue shows Phar Lap at full stretch - an 8.2 metre stride with jockey Jim Pike on his back.
It will be cast in bronze and erected outside the Timaru Racecourse in November as a tribute to the huge chestnut gelding which lifted the hopes of punters around the world as they struggled to deal with the depression of the 1930s.
Jillings, who was only one when the horse died in 1932, said there was only one Phar Lap.
"His heart proved that. He had the biggest heart of any horse in the world."
He said he believed Sullivan-Gessler had captured Phar Lap's image without fault, after studying countless photographs of the great horse.
"He is identical. When I walked in and saw him I was amazed," said Jillings.
The trainer last year became a member of New Zealand racing's Hall of Fame. He was rarely without a top horse in his stable and won the New Zealand Derby five times.
Some of the best he trained included Uncle Remus, McGinty and The Phantom Chance which won a Cox Plate in Melbourne.
His comments about the sculpture were echoed by Hamilton equine veterinarian Noel Power.
"She has done remarkably well in being faithful to the horse's true anatomy.
"She has produced a very true picture of what he was like."
Power said the clay impression was more lifelike than Phar Lap's stuffed hide in the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne.
"They have taken the hide and stuffed it with foam. This brings it back to life," he said.
Sunline Loses Laminitis Battle
- Friday, 01 May 2009 00:00
The daughter of Desert Sun, who proved her champion qualities with victories in Australia, Hong Kong and her native New Zealand, humanely destroyed this morning.
The 14-year-old mare succumbed to the serious hoof disease and US expert Ric Redden told connections nothing could be done to save the champ.
"It was Ric's advice that she had lost all quality of life due to the debilitating disease," former trainer and part owner Trevor McKee told NZPA.
"We will miss her terribly. We have taken the only decision available, acting on the best advice that could be obtained worldwide."
"Sunce will forever by a part of Australasian racing folklore and it has been a privilege being associated with such a champion, who we will always consider a part of the family."
Sunline earned over NZ$13 million during an illustrious career in which she won 32 of her 48 starts.
She was three times voted Australia's Horse of the Year - and over four consecutive seasons was crowned the best of New Zealand.
Spratt Has Group One Winning Ways
- Sunday, 12 April 2009 00:00
New Zealand jockey Samantha Spratt has warmed up for her big assignment aboard King Mufhasa in next week's Doncaster with a Group One victory on home turf.
Spratt won her fifth major race of the season when she guided Prince Kaapstad from a wide draw to victory in the Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie on Saturday.
One of the outsiders in the Easter Handicap field, Prince Kaapstad is trained in by Richard Yuill who also provided Spratt with the first of her Group One winners for 2008-09, Gallions Reach in the Zabeel Classic on Boxing Day.
Spratt then added Group One wins with King Mufhasa in the Telegraph Handicap (1200m) at Trentham in January and the Waikato Sprint (1400m) the following month.
A couple of weeks later she chalked up Group One No 4 with Culminate in the Otaki Weight-For-Age (1600m).
King Mufhasa was third in the George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill in Sydney on April 4 after hitting the lead early in the straight.
Spratt is sure Mufhasa will be improved by the race.
"He hadn't raced for eight weeks, it was a heavy track and he just came to the end of his run the last bit," Spratt told NZPA.
"I expect him to improve a lot. It's obviously going to be a tough field but he's going to be competitive."
A recent 3-1/2 week suspension which cost her the ride on Coolmore Classic runner-up Culminate also opened the door for apprentice James McDonald to take the lead in the New Zealand premiership.
But the premiership was not a priority, she said.
"I'm not too worried about that. I'm more interested in picking up the good races," she said.
"I'm not going to travel around (the country) chasing the premiership. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, I'm not going to be gutted."
Spratt has ridden 80 winners this season with McDonald on 86.
The Stephen McKee-trained King Mufhasa is currently at $15 for the Doncaster (1600m) with All Silent the $4.60 favourite with TAB Sportsbet.
The final field and barrier draw will be declared on Tuesday.
Owners Fall Out Over Princess Coup Sale
- Thursday, 30 April 2009 00:00
The High Court is to decide whether top race mare Princess Coup will be sold at a national horse sale in Auckland next week.
Prominent owners John Bromley and Ray Coupland have fallen out over the sale of the mare, a Horse of the Year winner in New Zealand who won $NZ4 million on the track before her retirement this year.
Princess Coup was entered in next week's national weanling, broodmare and mixed bloodstock sale at Karaka in South Auckland.
Bromley said it was without his consent and sought a court order to stop her being sold there, the Waikato Times newspaper reported.
Princess Coup was considered likely to break the record price for a broodmare at a New Zealand auction - $NZ825,000 for Honor Lap in 2007 - if she goes up for sale.
Justice Ailsa Duffy reserved her decision on Tuesday, but was likely to deliver it before the sale.
She said both men agreed Princess Coup should be sold, but differed on how she should be sold.
Bromley's lawyer Brian Dickey said his client had been reluctant to sell as he was keen to breed from the champion mare, but had accepted that selling her was the only way to resolve the dispute.
However, he resented Princess Coup being entered for next week's sale and sought to have the court decree that she should be sold either at next month's Magic Millions Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast or by private treaty.
"One party has effectively enforced a sale on the other party against their wishes," Dickey said.
Tony Nolan, appearing for Coupland, said his client had originally offered to sell Bromley his half-share in Princess Coup for $NZ1.5 million, valuing the mare at $NZ3 million.
Coupland had subsequently dropped his asking price to $NZ1.25 million and finally $NZ1.1 million before entering her in the Karaka sale under the banner of Te Akau Stud.
"He (Bromley) had the opportunity to buy at a budget price and that opportunity has now gone," Nolan said.
Comparisons could be drawn with top Australian filly Samantha Miss, who was sold for $A3.85 million in Sydney this month, Nolan said. She won three times at Group One level, one fewer than Princess Coup.
"It's a significant sale and there are comparisons between the two horses," Nolan said.
NZPA WGT
Dane Julia Wins Breeders Stakes
- Saturday, 04 April 2009 00:00
In the hands of comeback rider Michael Walker, Dane Julia loomed in centre track at the 300 metres from back in the field and came with an undeniable burst of speed to beat the favourite Shanzero by a long neck.
Walker had suffered major injuries in May last year when falling off cliff while pig hunting, with some saying the pig strapped to his back at the time helped to save his life, and while recording his fourteen group one win, it was his first since returning to the saddle in December last year.
Veloce Bella stormed home from back in the field to finish a length away in third, ahead of locally trained mare Loaded Command in fourth.
The time for the 1600 metres was a slick 1:34.30, and the winner returned $5.60 & $2.30.
The 39th running of the event, formerly the Gordon Wyborn Stakes, brought together a global affair with Dane Julia having registered a group one win amongst her six victories in South Africa, before changing hands to be trained by Lee Freedman at Rye, on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, and it was left to Freedman travelling foreman Scott Magee to bring some local flavour to the event having been born in Patea, New Zealand.
Magee was apprenticed to Woodville trainer Maurice Murphy, riding Oliver's Dream in his only success, and now boasts trips to Royal Ascot in England with Miss Andretti and to Singapore with Mummify on his CV after twenty-one years working in the Freedman stable.
Magee said of Dane Julia, "She won this way round back in South Africa, which was a big plus in bringing her here. It's a nice race, and great for her to get black type on the other side of the world."
Magee was particularly impressed by the ride, saying, "Geez he rode it well. She got back, but when he got her into the clear I thought if she's any good she'll be tough."
And it seems the win may have prompted a continuation of her time in New Zealand, having only arrived here last Monday. "We've been spoilt at the property of Tony Pike, and we may now stay for a couple of runs."
"It's a great thrill to win a big race here, being a fellow Kiwi myself, and hopefully we can win a few more."
Bred by F. M. Ratner & L. M. Salzman, Dane Julia is owned by P. S. Buckley and S. Sukrin, who were unfortunately unable to be present for the victory.