Month: January 2021

Gr.1 Victoria Derby (2500m) winner Johnny Get Angry has been sent to the paddock and will miss the autumn carnival. Owner-Trainer Denis Pagan said on Wednesday the three-year-old pulled up a little scratchy after his work on Tuesday and while not lame, Pagan said he wanted to err on the side of caution with the son of Tavistock. “He owes me absolutely nothing this horse and I just don’t want to take any sort of risk with him,” Pagan told racing.com. “I had every intention of running him this autumn…

Taranaki trainer Allan Sharrock is hoping his diminutive sprinter Tavi Mac (NZ) (Tavistock) can provide the movie fairytale finish to Saturday’s Gr.1 JR & N Berkett Telegraph (1200m) at Trentham. “It’s the old battler’s tale. The little horse from humble beginnings up against the expensive Fastnet Rock mare, and she’ll take some beating too,” Sharrock said assessing Tavi Mac’s clash with four-time Group One winner Avantage, the TAB’s $1.65 favourite for the Telegraph. “It’s the old Seabiscuit story. Just maybe?” Seabiscuit was a similarly small, ugly-duckling American galloper who became…

Emerging young sire Contributer has gained some serious momentum leading into the 2021 NZB Yearling Sales at Karaka later this month.   Contributer is starting to make a name for himself as an up-and-coming sire on both sides of the Tasman. He is currently sitting at the top of the New Zealand based 2nd season sire list for winners and earnings in Australasia.  The dual Gr.1 winning son of High Chaparral has had a purple patch of recent winners, which means his progeny will be well sought after at New Zealand’s…

The Otaki stable of Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard boasts the best strike-rate in New Zealand this season, and a quality quartet of runners at Trentham on Saturday could further embellish their impressive record. Benner and Wynyard have won 15 races so far this season, which puts them in 16th place on the national trainers’ premiership. But they have saddled only 44 starters, giving them a strike-rate of a winner every 2.93 runners – clearly better than any other stable in the top 100. “We can’t really complain, things have…

Horses emanating from New Zealand made an impact at Caulfield on Wednesday, winning four of the eight races. Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr unearthed yet another New Zealand-bred Melbourne metropolitan winner as I’m Thunderstruck arrived in the shadows of the post to win on debut in the Neds Filter Form Plate (1200m), a three-year-old maiden, at Caulfield on Wednesday. Price and Kent Jnr have won seven Melbourne races since November 25 with six of them bred in New Zealand. The list features Saint Eustace, Tavidance, Kurabui, Ayrton and Rare…