There have been few horses with the consistency of Bradman over the past 12 months, and the versatile galloper will aim to continue that vein of form in Saturday’s Gr.3 Hunterville Vet Club Metric Mile (1600m).
Since winning the Listed Flying Handicap (1400m) in April, the son of Pins has placed in the Listed City Of Napier Sprint (1200m), Listed AGC Training Stakes (1600m) and the Gr.3 Winter Cup (1600m), demanding respect in the Wanganui feature.
Trained and co-owned by Roydon Bergerson, Bradman will be ridden by a very in-form Wiremu Pinn out of barrier seven, coincidentally jumping alongside his older full-brother No Compromise.
“In the Winter Cup, he copped a check down the back when he’d just got settled and he over-raced, which probably cost him in the finish, but he fought like a tiger,” Bergerson said.
“He went out to the paddock for a week to Chris Rutten’s for a quick freshen-up and we thought we’d bring him back for this race.
“We intended to go to the jump-outs last week but they were cancelled, hence why he trialled on Wednesday. He does really well when he has a spell, so he just needed a bit of a tighten-up.
“He’s pulled up super after yesterday and he looks a million dollars, so we’ll press on and run him.”
The son of Pins holds a nomination for the Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) next Saturday, but his Awapuni trainer indicated the final day at Hastings may prove more appealing.
“We would possibly consider putting in a late nomination for the Livamol Classic (Gr.1) at 2000m, the quick-back up wouldn’t probably suit unless it poured with rain at Hastings next week,” he said.
“He’s still in the nominations for the Arrowfield, so we’ll know more after Saturday where we want to go.”
Bergerson will have a pair of runners contesting the H&T Agronomics/Agricom OPN 1200, with the near certain Heavy conditions to suit both Reign It In and Farravallo.
“Reign It In stood on a plate and missed a start a couple of weeks ago, but he’s come right now and we just gave him a quite trial yesterday, where he went to the line under a hold,” Bergerson said.
“He’s ready to go again, wetter the better for him.
“I thought the field may have been a little bit weaker, but with New Plymouth being abandoned last weekend, I see a few of those horses have popped up.
“As long as he does everything right in the running, he should be competitive.”
Reign It In was a last start winner at Otaki, while Farravallo was unsuited to the firm surface at Hastings, which came after a pair of wet-track victories in lower grades.
“There’s just no races for Farravallo, I know it’s a big ask to step-up from winning a 65 race to running in an open handicap, but he loves the wet and likes to get on speed so that’s why we are running there,” Bergerson said.
“It was just too firm for him at Hastings and he couldn’t keep up, so he’ll probably lead on Saturday and we’ll see what happens.”
Up the road on Sunday, Queen Of Spades and Sweetjineen have accepted into the Ultra-Scan Mike O’Keefe (1650m) at Waverley, with the latter set to visit new Grangewilliam Stud sire Hilal should she bypass the Rating 75 contest.
“She (Queen Of Spades) gets four-kilos off with Ralph’s apprentice (Rihaan Goyaram), I gave her a quiet trial yesterday just to keep her up to the mark and she’s run really well,” Bergerson said.
“She should go well and wetter the better for her, she should be competitive.
“Sweetjineen is working well and raced well at Woodville, but she was disappointing at Wanganui the other day.
“We put that down to the track so we may not run her if the tracks too heavy, if that’s the case, she’ll probably go to the stallion instead and get a service, then we’ll carry on racing her in foal.”
