By Jonny Turner
Beaudiene Hustler’s victory at Addington on Friday night continued the recent run of good news breeding giant Alabar has been enjoying.
The A Rocknroll Dance 3yr-old finally delivered on the promise he had previously shown with a front-running victory for trainers Cran Dalgety and Nathan Purdon and driver Sarah O’Reilly.
Beaudiene Hustler had cost himself in the lead up to his maiden win in race 3 by hanging in his previous runs.
The Dalgety-Purdon team worked to iron out those issues and it paid off for his owners, the Alabar Racing Syndicate.
“He has been a bit of a challenge training-wise and it has taken a while to work him out,” syndicate manager Ivan Behrnes said.
“He had had sore feet and that was why he had been hanging in his races and costing himself.”
“The team sorted that out and he raced a lot more kindly.”
Though he led and was strong to the line, Beaudiene Hustler is likely to be a better horse coming from behind.
“We were thinking something might give us a nice trail, but nothing took him on and he showed a bit of fight,” Behrnes said.
“He has got a bit of speed, we think he would come off a trail really well, but we haven’t had a chance to see that this season.”
Beaudiene Hustler is raced by the same syndicate that owns side-lined open class star, Chase Auckland.
The All Stars pacer had his season cut short when fracturing a hock in the lead up to the Miracle Mile.
The injury was operated on in Sydney and Chase Auckland has been on the improve since.
“He is doing really well in Australia,” Behrnes said.
“He is at a special care centre that is run by the vets who were involved with the operation.”
“They are exercising him 20 minutes a day and he is due to come back to New Zealand on the 10th of August.”
“He will go to the Matamata vet centre to undergo more veterinary training and then on to the All Stars.”
“Then, fingers crossed, he will be able to go to the races.”
“But, now he is at one of those stages where we don’t quite know until the pressure goes on.”
Good progress reports on Chase Auckland have come during an exciting time for Alabar.
The Australasian stud, who employ Behrnes as their South Island rep, have enjoyed big interest in their new stallion recruits Captain Crunch and The Storm Inside.
Always B Miki, who like Captain Crunch stands at Alabar in partnership with Nevele R Stud, has also been bringing good news to the stud with his steady stream of slick qualifiers in North America.
“Within hours Captain Crunch was booked out and then New Zealand picked him up and he is booked out here, too.”
“Always B Miki and Art Major are fully booked in Australia.”
“And Miki has already had a lot of interest in New Zealand too, because his first crop in North America are doing the job and look quite promising.”