Talented gelding Hasstobeawinner (NZ) (Vadamos) has lived up to his name this preparation and will be tested for the first time in Group company in Saturday’s Gr.2 Ultimate Mazda Japan Trophy (1600m) at Tauranga.
The son of Vadamos had always shown promise and was rewarded for consistency with a lucrative prize in the Stella Artois 1500 Championship Final, an effort he only improved off to finish second behind the airborne El Vencedor in the Listed Fulton Family Stakes (1500m).
In preparation for the Tauranga feature, Hasstobeawinner carried the top-weight at Taupo over 1400m and lost no admirers, firing into third while giving away nearly six kilograms to the winner, Channel Surfer.
Robert Wellwood, who trains the five-year-old in partnership with Roger James, had plenty to praise in his most recent effort.
“I thought it was a good run, he didn’t get all favours and carried 60 kilos,” he said. “To see him round off the way he did, after not enjoying the track all that much, we were very impressed.
“His record right-handed is as good as anything, so we’re looking forward to seeing him go right-handed and up over a bit further.
“We’ve targeted this race to some extent with them and we’ll get this out of the way before making any plans going further.”
Joining Hasstobeawinner in the contest will be Dionysus (NZ) (Ocean Park), a Group Three-winning stayer resuming from a freshen-up. While Saturday’s distance may not be right up his alley, Wellwood and James have their eye on a bigger prize in a fortnight at Trentham.
“He worked really nicely this week and the mile may be a tad sharp for him, but expect to see him making big bounds late,” Wellwood said.
He’s hopefully going to go on to the Awapuni Gold Cup after this, and we’d love to see him get back to his best form for that race.”
The stable had hoped to send three-year-old maideners Surprise Inside (NZ) (Per Incanto) and Hephaestus (NZ) (The Autumn Sun) their separate ways across the weekend, but barrier draws have determined the pair will both start at Pukekohe on Friday in the TAB 1600.
A son of Per Incanto, Surprise Inside powered home into second last-start behind Ima Warrior, while Hephaestus produced a similar effort on debut, finishing a tidy fifth in a race won by Deadly Desire.
“They are both nice horses, we thought we would see how they drew to split them up but they’ve drawn the exact same places in both,” Wellwood said.
“We feel that Pukekohe is the better track for both of them (over Tauranga), it’s nice and roomy. It would be great to see them do something that could lead on to a nice race in the autumn.”
Meanwhile, Wellwood and James are yet to determine the next course of action for their star mare Orchestral (NZ) (Savabeel), after she finished sixth in the Gr.1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m) on Champions Day.
“We’re yet to decide on Orchestral, she was very disappointing early in the race and had been negative in her behaviour throughout the day, even travelling up in the truck,” Wellwood said.
“Interestingly enough, she still ran the quickest last 800, 600 and 400 of the race, but you don’t get any cups for doing that.
“We’ve given her a quiet week, changed a few things up and we’ll make a plan in the next week or so where we head with her.”
