Month: July 2020

Apprentice jockey Maria Sanson kicked off her career in fine style at Awapuni on Saturday when she picked up her first career victory on her raceday debut. The personable twenty-five-year-old had earlier guided the Kevin Myers-trained Overtheriver into fifth in the main flat race of the day before she scored aboard Super Flash for her boss Mark Oulaghan in the last race of the day. Sanson was naturally thrilled with the win although she admitted the day’s excitement had taken its toll. “I was actually in bed pretty early last…

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Star hurdler Gobstopper (NZ) (Tavistock) snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Sunday’s Kevin Lafferty Hurdle at Warrnambool to continue an all-conquering 2020 season. The former Kiwi started the $2 favourite and jumped cleanly in the small field of five but looked in trouble when Woodsman raced three lengths clear inside the final 300m. But jockey Darryl Horner continued to urge Gobstopper along in the final furlong of the race and he found another gear, overhauling his rival in the shadows of the winning post to secure another feature…

Michael Dee’s season is over with the jockey likely to have surgery later on Monday for a broken collarbone. Dee, 24, fell from Heroic Fighter after colliding with the riderless Midas Man shortly after Heroic Fighter  won the Sandown Lodge Handicap (2200m) at Pakenham on Sunday with the jockey taken immediately to the Dandenong Hospital for scans. The scans revealed he has broken his right collarbone and after he undergoes surgery, he is expected to be about six weeks on the sidelines. Dee has enjoyed a solid season, highlighted by his…

Kiwi rider Bridget Grylls is hoping a win in Sunday’s Ultrasigns Maiden Plate at Pakenham, could provide a springboard to greater opportunities in Victoria. Brazen Princess was Grylls’ second winner since relocating across the Tasman with partner Joe Waldron, who trains at Mornington, but hopes it is not her last. “When my partner moved to Melbourne from New Zealand, I just followed and I didn’t want to give up riding because I enjoy it too much, so I thought I may as well give it another crack in Victoria,” Grylls…

Former New Zealand-trained gallopers made an impact at Warrnambool on Sunday, headed by Gobstopper (NZ) (Tavistock), who landed the feature race, the Kevin Lafferty Hurdle (3200m) with a hard-fought win over fellow Kiwi Woodsman (NZ) (Mastercraftsman). A brother to Group One winners Werther and Toffee Tongue, and Group One placed Milseain, Gobstopper has relished the switch to hurdling after the flat career of the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) winner plateaued. Previously trained by Andrew Campbell, Gobstopper has won four races for Eric Musgrove and called upon his flat ability…

Keep Aimee’s Jewel (NZ) (Proisir) in your black book. That’s the thought of trainer Trudy Keegan after the filly’s dominant debut victory over 1200m at Awapuni on Saturday. The daughter of Proisir missed the jump by a couple of lengths before she quickly regathered the pack under the urgings of jockey Lisa Allpress. She picked her way through the field and found a gap turning for home and was able to comfortably run away to a 5-1/4 length victory over Jugador (NZ) (El Hermano), with Lincoln’s Kruz (Kuroshio) a further…

The Canterbury Jockey Club has announced that the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m) will be run on Saturday 15 August 2020. The Grand National Festival of Racing was a casualty of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the racing calendar, however, the Winter Cup has found a new date in the new season. The race will be run over its traditional distance of 1600. with the Group Three stake to be confirmed when the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing funding policy is released later this week. Usually early entries are taken…