Month: August 2021

Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young may have lost one of stables more promising gallopers to Hong Kong but the team is hopeful the next generation can fill that void, starting at Flemington on Saturday. Summaroca (NZ) (El Roca) arrived in Hong Kong on Monday night as part of the latest Australian shipment, with the last start Flemington winner set to be trained by Manfred Man. “He should be a nice horse up there, when he did win at Flemington he looked gone and really dug in,” co-trainer Natalie Young said…

If it was good enough for Bart Cummings, then it is good enough for Dennis Pagan to start the Melbourne Cup campaign of Johnny Get Angry (NZ) (Tavistock) in the Gr.3 Aurie’s Star Handicap (1200m).  Cummings, along with other legendary trainers Colin Hayes and George Hanlon would often use sprint races like Saturday’s Group Three sprint to start their stayer’s campaigns.  The Cummings-trained Hyperno, winner of the 1979 Melbourne Cup, kicked-off a spring campaign in the Aurie’s Star finishing second when the race was over 1100m.  “I thought to myself you can’t get a better surface,”…

Following on from last year’s successful Series, New Zealand Bloodstock is pleased to announce a further ten NZB Ready to Run Sale Trainers Series race sponsorships, with incentivised prize packages awarded to domestic trainers over the next three months.  NZB introduced the Series last year to support New Zealand trainers attending its Ready to Run Sale held in November.  This season, four races will take place at Riccarton with a further six races shared between Central District and Northern regions. Working with long-time partners Majestic Horse Transport and Raceform, NZB will award the winning trainer…

Undefeated filly Imperatriz continued to impress at the Ellerslie trials on Tuesday, comfortably winning her 900m heat by five lengths over stablemate Palamos. The daughter of I Am Invincible won both of her starts as a juvenile, including the Gr.2 Eclipse Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, but her season was curtailed following her maiden stakes victory. “Imperatriz is well above average, she just got held up with a bit of an injury after the Eclipse, so we are just going to have to manage that pretty carefully,”…

The Good Fight may have only been in Michael Moroney’s Flemington barn for just over a month, but the expat Kiwi believes the gelding is capable of making it to the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) in November. The son of High Chaparral was part of the initial entrants for the Gr.1 Caulfield (2400m) and Melbourne Cups on Tuesday, and with a smaller than usual international contingent, Moroney said The Good Fight just may find himself in either race if he continues on his current trajectory. “He is a horse that…

Cambridge trainer Tony Pike was savouring the last few hours of a brief Queenstown getaway on Wednesday before the focus switches to overseeing his team for a busy spring. When the nominations closed for several of the features across the Tasman, the Pike-trained Sherwood Forest was amongst those in the long list of Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) hopefuls. Last year’s Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) winner will step out at the Cambridge trials on Thursday as he builds towards an Australian campaign. “There are numerous options in Australia for him.…