Month: January 2021

Reprising a latent winning habit, Not Usual Talent’s (NZ) (Zacinto) gate-crashing victory in the Class 2 Choi Hung Handicap (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday ended an 11-race losing streak while delivering a reality check to the claims of a string of Four-Year-Old Classic Series aspirants. Winless since July 2019, the former New Zealander saluted under a perfect ride from Frenchman Tony Piccone to give Benno Yung a double in a timely reminder of the abiding value of tough, experienced horses in Hong Kong. Pitted against eight four-year-olds from powerful…

Inglewood Stud moves into a new era this year with the first yearlings by War Decree going through the sale ring. The North Canterbury nursery helped to raise the profile of South Island breeding by standing Zacinto from 2012 until his move north to Valachi Downs in 2018. He has sired 68 winners from 135 runners among those southern crops, five of them at stakes level including the Group One star Ugo Foscolo. Inglewood Stud recruited War Decree as Zacinto’s replacement, and there are promising signs that he will be…

Riding horses may be how Chad Ormsby makes his living, but it is riding bulls that is his biggest passion. That passion took him north to compete in a rodeo near Whangarei over the weekend where he was involved in an incident that resulted in a broken leg and a trip to Waikato Hospital for surgery. “It is a bit unfortunate, but it is the game we play. The way it was broken was a bit unlucky,” Ormsby said. “In the chute where we come out of on the bull,…

Riccarton trainer Meg Cunneen broke through to record her first victory when Mamma Sans (NZ) (Tavistock) won the Alex Hayward/Noel Wafer Pow Memorial (1810m) at Kumara on Saturday. Cunneen (26), the daughter of Mid Canterbury rugby centurion Paul Cunneen, who bred the mare in partnership with Eric Parr and races her himself, boasts a strong equestrian background. It was the second time in a week that Cunneen had travelled Mamma Sans to the West Coast, and with the addition of blinkers she beat a good field after jockey Brett Murray…

Maria Farina (NZ) (Contributer) kept her unbeaten record intact at Ellerslie on Sunday in the Blue Bubble Taxis 1200 and now a Group Three target beckons the promising filly later this month. The Darryn Weatherley-trained three-year-old settled to the rear of the field for Weatherley’s jockey son Sam. The pair were last turning for home, however, Weatherley was able to navigate his charge through a gap that presented itself at the 200m mark and Maria Farina showed an explosive turn of foot and dashed away to a three-quarters of a…

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