Back and refreshed after escaping some of the coldest weeks of the New Zealand winter, Stephen Marsh is hoping the final weekend of 2023-24 season will give his stable some momentum to take into the new season.
The Cambridge trainer has enjoyed another outstanding year and went into Friday’s Riccarton meeting with 98 wins to his name. That ranks as the third most successful season of his career behind his totals of 104 in 2021-22 and 100 in 2022-23.
Marsh’s runners have earned more than $5.2 million in 2023-24, which easily beats his previous best of $3.4 million, and his 10 Group and Listed victories in New Zealand equals what he achieved in both 2016-17 and 2020-21. This season also featured a Group Two win in Melbourne with Antrim Coast in the Alister Clark Stakes (2040m).
Marsh has returned from an overseas holiday with a spring in his step, hoping Ortega can provide one last black-type success for the season when she heads to Otaki as a leading contender for Saturday’s Listed Ryder Stakes (1200m).
“It’s been a fantastic season,” Marsh said. “I’ve just got back from an overseas holiday, and now I’m hoping to finish this season off strongly and then get stuck into the next one. It would be great if we could cap off the season with a bit of black type for Ortega on Saturday.”
Ortega has had two starts for a fifth placing on debut at Taupo and a last start win at Pukekohe. The daughter of Reliable Man impressed her trainer with her tenacious performance in the latter, overcoming a tough wide run to edge out Ryder Stakes rival Beau Luca by a long head.
“I thought that was a bloody brave win,” Marsh said. “It was a tough performance after being caught so wide on quite a testing track.
“She’s bounced through that race well and has had a nice five-week gap between races. I think she’s going into Saturday in good shape.
“She deserves to have a crack at some black type, and this looks a nice race to give her that opportunity. There’s some good form in it, but she’s one of only two winners, so she’s going to get her chance. She’ll cope with whatever track conditions she’s faced with.”
Horse racing bookmakers rated Ortega a $4.50 second favourite for the Ryder Stakes on Friday, just behind the Robbie Patterson-trained Read About It ($4.20).
Ortega will be Marsh’s only runner at Otaki on Saturday, but he has 10 entries for Te Rapa including in-form runners such as Winning For All, Hula Beat and Shaking Stevens. First-starter El Arish adds interest to the team, being a two-year-old full-brother to this season’s Group One performer Talisker.
Marsh would love to collect a couple of wins from that Saturday contingent, or potentially Tauranga next Wednesday, to take him to his third consecutive 100-win season.
“It’ll be a well-earned century if we get there,” he said. “A few abandonments and very wet tracks over the last few weeks have stalled our progress a little bit.
“A couple of months ago I thought we were no chance of getting to 100, but then we had a very good May and put ourselves within reach. To have got as close as we have, it would be a bit of a shame if we ended up falling one or two wins short. But having said that, I’ve got no complaints about the season that we’ve had.
“I think we’ve got a handful of reasonably nice chances this weekend, like Shaking Stevens, who was a last-start winner on that Te Rapa track and should be very competitive again.”
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