Month: July 2021

Adelaide trainer Stuart Gower hopes Mongolian Marshal (NZ) (High Chaparral) can be a player during the spring and would like to see the gelding back at Flemington during Melbourne Cup week.  Mongolian Marshal took out Saturday’s Listed VRC/CRV Winter Championship Series Final (1600m) and Gower would like to aim the former New Zealand gelding at the Gr. 1 Mackinnon Stakes (2000m).  But first, Mongolian Marshal will return to Adelaide for two weeks ‘R & R’ before embarking on a spring campaign.  Under the guidance of Brett Prebble, Mongolian Marshal ($41) scored a three-quarter length win from Furrion (Camelot) ($26) with Biometric…

The Toby Autridge-trained Tommyra returned to his best form over fences when he sprang a minor upset in taking out the Te Whangai Romneys Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m) at Hastings. The 2020 Waikato Hurdle (3200m) winner had been overlooked by many as punters gravitated towards topweight Tallyho Twinkletoe and the promising Bak Da Master to take out the feature hurdle event on the card. Ridden aggressively by Shaun Phelan, who picked up the ride after Reece Cole was stood down following a fall in the first race on the card,…

Trainer Anthony Burton made a successful return to the Ruakaka racing ranks when he produced exciting two-year-old colt Tsunami Sam to win on debut at his local meeting on Saturday. Burton, who spent 17 years working for former Ruakaka and now Singapore-based trainer Donna Logan, took up his own license shortly after relocating south to Invercargill to be closer to his partners’ family during the late stages of her pregnancy. Burton met with some success including producing hardy stayer Beam Me Up Scotty to win at Riverton back in April.…

A perfect ground saving ride by Harry Coffey has landed Seiners Express (NZ) (Shamexpress) victory in the Silver Bowl Series Final (1600m) at Flemington.  The victory turned around the fortunes of the connections of the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained galloper who had finished last in his previous outing at Sandown on June 12.  Seiners Express was diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia following that effort with the son of Shamexpress making a quick recovery from the ailment.  After settling back in the field, Coffey was able to weave his way between runners before guiding Seiners Express to a three-quarter length win from the…

A sparkling win at the Te Rapa trials back in late May indicated that promising three-year-old All About You would be hard to beat when he made his raceday debut and that proved correct as he bolted away with the first race on the card at Ruakaka on Saturday. The son of All Too Hard put paid to a handy field of age-group rivals over 1200m in the hands of Sam Spratt, racing clear in the final stages to win by one and a half lengths from the well-favoured Express…