Author: NZRacingDesk

Jakama Krystal (NZ) (Jakkalberry) was back for redemption in the final jumping race of the season on Sunday and she earned just that, storming to victory in the Property Brokers Pahiatua/Woodville (4000m). The Jakkalberry mare had competed at the Woodville venue earlier this month in the open steeplechase and looked the winner at the 600m, before landing awkwardly and dislodging her rider after jumping that fence. Peter and Jessica Brosnan elected to back her up the following weekend at Te Rapa where she was solid in third, but returning to…

Promising hurdler Dictation (NZ) (Tavistock) finished his jumping season in style at Woodville on Sunday, putting on the complete performance to take out the Toll Free Tararua (3000m). The son of Tavistock has had a near-faultless first season hurdling, winning undercard races on major days at Hawke’s Bay and Riccarton Park, albeit the latter coming as a consolation after he dislodged the jockey at the final fence of the Sydenham Hurdles (3100m). Returning to the North Island, Dictation was defeated by fellow rising star Mugshot at Woodville, before coming in…

Marieke Simons had an afternoon to remember at Woodville on Sunday, riding her first winner as an amateur aboard a horse she trains and co-owns in Ride The Tide (NZ) (Darci Brahma). The Awapuni horsewoman had competed on 11 previous occasions in amateur races dating back to the 2013/14 season, and after five years away from race-day riding, she made her return in this season’s Flair Amateurs Series Final (2200m). The country’s top amateur jockey Scotty Macnab had his sixth series title all parcelled up prior to the Final, while…

Andrew Forsman has suggested Gr.3 MRC Foundation Cup winner Positivity (NZ) (Almanzor) will take her chance in the Caulfield Cup, but he is still on the hunt for a jockey to ride at 50 kilograms. Forsman had initially been reluctant to throw his SA Fillies Classic winner in the deep end this spring prior to her win last weekend in a driving finish over Future History. “We are very tempted,” Forsman said of the Caulfield Cup. “I suppose when you have 50 kilos in a $5 million race you have…

Guy Heveldt, Emily Bosson and Jayne Ivil breakdown Hawkes Bay cancellation. Talk I Wish I Win with Mark Chittick and review the big races across the ditch. Weigh In, September 29 (youtube.com)

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Matamata is set to host the Gr.1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) for the second time in three years after a slippery track forced the abandonment of Saturday’s blockbuster race meeting at Hastings. The second day of the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival had promised so much, with quality fields set to compete under blue skies. But a short burst of rain late on Friday afternoon created a slippery layer on the surface of the track, which was rated Good4 on Friday and Soft5 on Saturday morning. The effects of that moisture…

Elite New Zealand racehorse Desert Lightning (NZ) (Pride Of Dubai) has made a perfect start to the next chapter of his career, capturing Saturday’s Gr.3 Sandown Stakes (1500m) in his second start for new trainers Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman. Desert Lightning was a five-race winner and million-dollar earner in New Zealand for the now-retired training team of Peter and Dawn Williams. He finished fourth in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) as a two-year-old and second in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at three, then went to a…

Love Poem propelled herself up the fixed-odds market for the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) with a dominant first-up performance at Te Rapa on Friday. The highly talented Snitzel filly was a stakes placegetter in all of her three starts as a two-year-old. She was runner-up to Captured By Love (Written Tycoon) on debut in the Gr.3 Taranaki 2YO Classic (1200m), then finished third behind Captured By Love and Alabama Lass (Alabama Express) in the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m). In her only other start, she ran second to…

Evergreen galloper Green Luck showed there was still plenty of life left in his ten-year-old legs as he downed his younger rivals to take out the Waimakariri Businesses North Canterbury Cup (2000m), the feature event at Riccarton on Saturday. The former Hong Kong galloper arrived in New Zealand back in 2022 after commencing his career in Australia, where he was successful in two of his three starts before heading to Hong Kong where he won another six races and more than $1million in prizemoney. Once in New Zealand he joined…