Month: July 2020

South Island mission on the cards for impressive Awapuni winner

Editor BOAY

A tilt at the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1400m) at Riccarton next month is the likely assignment for impressive Awapuni winner Happy Star (NZ) (Fabulous). The Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard-trained four-year-old made it two wins from two starts in his current campaign with a gritty performance on a testing Heavy11 surface to take out a rating 99 1400m contest on Saturday. Successful first-up at the venue over the same distance two weeks ago, the Fabulous gelding showed his fighting qualities again as he held out a stern challenge by Rock…

Spring beckons for Romancer

Editor BOAY

Romancer (NZ) (Redwood) found his best form to cause an upset in Saturday’s James Dunbar’s Flemington Inn (1600m) and in doing so, book a potential spring campaign. Trainer Grahame Begg explained Romancer was the type of horse that did not appreciate doing too much work early so from his inside gate (barrier two) and with apprentice Teo Nugent settling him perfectly just off the speed, Begg knew he was going to turn his form around. Romancer has now won about A$475,000 in prizemoney from 38 runs and is at the…

Gollan breaks Qld record with Classic win

Editor BOAY

Trainer Tony Gollan set a state record for winners in the best possible way when Solar Star (Zoustar) won the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic (1350m) at Ipswich. Gollan already had gained the record for most metropolitan victories when he became the first to train 100 Brisbane winners last month. He went into Saturday’s race on 151-1/2 statewide winners and needed one more to beat the previous record of 152. Solar Star, who was sold as a yearling out of Westbury Stud’s 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier draft, gave Gollan his…

The gift that keeps giving for Mason

Editor BOAY

Well-travelled galloper My Gift (Notnowcato) bounced back to winning form on his favourite track when he dominated his rivals over the closing stages of Saturday’s feature race at Awapuni, the John Turkington Forestry Ltd Rangitikei Gold Cup (2100m). The rising eight-year-old won his first three races in Europe before an unsuccessful 19-race stint in Hong Kong was ended when he was sent back to New Zealand and the care of Te Aroha trainer Gary Hennessy. Hennessy offered My Gift to owner-trainer John Mason who had lost the services of promising maiden…

Four for Rae at Timaru

Editor BOAY

Riccarton trainer Terri Rae made her way to Timaru on Sunday with high hopes of a good showing from her eight-strong team but even she was blown away by the day’s final winning tally. Victories to Paint Me Red (NZ) (Battle Paint), Scarfi (NZ) (Makfi), Hatrick Boys (NZ) (Makfi) and Newmarket (NZ) (Reliable Man) gave Rae a winning quartet in partnership with National Jockeys’ premiership leader Lisa Allpress, who was aboard all four successful runners. Rae was beaming as she made her way back to Christchurch although she admitted her confidence took a knock…

Bookmakers concede Jockeys’ premiership to Allpress

Editor BOAY

TAB bookmakers have put up the white flag and are paying out on Lisa Allpress winning the National Jockeys’ premiership. A double aboard Happy Star (NZ) (Fabulous) and Penelope Cruise (NZ) (Ocean Park) at Awapuni on Saturday put her twelve wins clear of nearest rival Kozzi Asano with just two weeks and seven meetings left in a season tipped upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Allpress is delighted to sit atop the premiership once again, the fourth time in a career that began back in the 1995/96 season when she began an…