Month: May 2024

After a flurry of winners in the final few days of May, Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh hopes to extend that good form into June with a talented team at Pukekohe on Saturday. Marsh sits in second place on the New Zealand trainers’ premiership with 86 wins this season, 10 of them at Group and Listed level. His runners have earned more than $5 million in prizemoney, which is a new career best. He is closing in on his overall highest season total of 104 wins, which he set in 2021-22.…

Lisa Latta’s 2023-24 season features an unusual statistic of seven Group wins and none at Listed level, but the Awapuni trainer has two opportunities to rectify that anomaly at Wanganui on Saturday. Latta’s black-type wins this season have come from Belclare in the Gr.1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) and Gr.2 Westbury Classic (1400m), Lantern Way in the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), Diss Is Dramatic in the Gr.2 Japan Trophy (1600m) and Gr.3 Thompson Handicap (1600m), and Belardo Boy in the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m) and Gr.3 Metric…

Talented Riverton three-year-old Riviera Rebel will head to Wingatui on Sunday to kick off a winter campaign that could culminate in a shot at the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m). The son of Pure Champion will take on older Rating 75 opposition in the $35,000 Win a Hilux With Property Brokers (1600m), which will be his first appearance since winning a Rating 65 over the same distance at Riverton nine weeks ago. That home-track victory was an impressive front-running performance in Heavy10 conditions on March 30, kicking away at the home…

Carl Henderson is on the sidelines with a broken ankle and he is hoping Rua Rocks can boost his spirits when he heads to Te Aroha on Monday to contest the Te Aroha Veterinary Services Te Aroha Cup (2200m). Henderson spent a couple of weeks in the hospital earlier this month after being dislodged from a horse and fracturing his leg, which subsequently required surgery, and has put him on the sidelines for an extended period of time. “I fell off one (horse) and fractured it (ankle) in three places…

Cambridge trainer Ken Harrison is looking forward to heading to Pukekohe on Saturday where he will have a two-pronged attack in the Dunstan Horsefeeds 2200. Tavistock gelding Espresso To Go has put in solid performances in his last two outings, placing over 2100m at Hawera on each occasion, and Harrison said he will appreciate stepping up to 2200m this weekend. Pukekohe was rated a Heavy10 on Friday morning, and that bodes the only concern for Harrison, but he said his charge will benefit from the weight relief of three-kilogram claiming…