Day: 6 September 2024

Everyone enjoys a winter holiday in the sun and racehorses appear to be no different.  A case in point is the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained I Wish I Win (NZ) (Savabeel) who runs first-up in the Gr.1 Moir Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday.  The contrast between I Wish I Win’s past two winters could not be more telling after the sprinter spent one in the cold in Victoria and another in the warmth of Queensland.  Admittedly I Wish I Win raced further into winter this year than he did last, but Coleman said the…

Grant Cooksley won the Gr.1 Westbury Stud Tarzino Trophy (1400m) as a jockey seven years ago aboard the Shelley Hale-trained Close Up, and on Saturday he will vie to capture the Hastings feature as a trainer. His win aboard Close Up was the last of Cooksley’s 66 Group One victories in the saddle, and he said he got a massive thrill out of scoring his first win in the race for Hale. “He won it quite well, it was good to get the win for Shelley,” Cooksley said. “I hadn’t…

TAB New Zealand is once again showing their support for Daffodil Day at the Tarzino Trophy meeting at Hastings on Saturday. In what has become an annual tradition on the opening day of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, the Daffodil Day silks will be assigned to a leading runner in each race and if the jockey in those silks returns at the head of the field, TAB New Zealand will contribute $2,000 towards the Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society. That donation increases to $5,000 for the feature race of the meeting,…

Ken and Bev Kelso are no strangers to big-race success during the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival, and the Matamata trainers will attempt to add another Hastings trophy to their collection when Alabama Lass steps out as favourite in Saturday’s Gr.3 HBPB Thoroughbred Breeders’ Gold Trail Stakes (1200m). The Kelsos have celebrated dozens of black-type wins over the last few decades, including the Gr.1 Kelt Capital Stakes (2040m, now Livamol Classic) with Love Dance in 1996 and an outstanding feature double in September of 2013 with Bounding in the Gr.3 Gold…

Cody Cole made a winning start to his season earlier this week at Matamata, a trend he hopes to continue with a strong team heading down to Hastings on Saturday. Evelyn Rush (NZ) (Derryn) was the local stable’s first runner for the new term, and on debut, was a convincing winner in the Waharoa Transport Co. (1995) LTD 1200 at the Wednesday meeting. “She drew a nice gate and Craig (Grylls) gave her a super ride, I thought she may need the experience a little bit but it didn’t turn…

Saturday is shaping up to be an exciting afternoon for Waikato Stud, whose colours will be carried by key Group One contenders on both sides of the Tasman. Skew Wiff (NZ) (Savabeel) returns to Hastings to defend her title in the Gr.1 Westbury Stud Tarzino Trophy (1400m), and she will be followed two and a half hours later by I Wish I Win (NZ) (Savabeel) in the Gr.1 Moir Stakes (1000m) at The Valley. Both are homebred progeny of Waikato Stud. Waikato Stud also has last season’s Gr.2 Awapuni Gold…

It’s been a long and wet winter for Southland trainer Robert Dennis, and he is glad to be through the other side with spring racing on the doorstep. “It is toiling work in the rain, the cold, the dark, and having to travel for a handful of races that we had through the winter,” he said. “The team have done a good job through the winter putting in the hard yards, and I am hoping we can reap the rewards through the spring.” New Zealand Cup Week at Riccarton remains…