Rider Masa Hashizume made a quick return to winning action following an injury-enforced stint on the sideline when he guided emerging star Tomodachi (NZ) (Tarzino) to an impressive victory in open company over 1200m at Ellerslie on Saturday.
The Auckland-based hoop suffered a broken collarbone in a race fall at Trentham in January but barely a month later he was back at trackwork with his sights set on returning for the ride on Gr.1 Trackside New Zealand Derby (2400m) favourite Willydoit in his final lead-up to the blue riband event, the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m).
While Willydoit didn’t produce his best in the Guineas with a somewhat lacklustre effort in a farcically slow run contest, Hashizume showed he was back to full fitness with a well-judged effort aboard the Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott-prepared Tomodachi.
Shooting for the fifth win of her brief career to date, Tomodachi settled back in the seven-horse field before Hashizume set her alight approaching the home corner as Michael McNab aboard race favourite Glamour Tycoon tried to steal a march on his rivals after setting up a slowly run affair from barrier rise.
Tomodachi quickly joined issue at the 300m and the pair set down to a titanic struggle that went in favour of Tomodachi by a neck at the winning post, much to the delight of O’Sullivan.
“I thought Masa summed it up well as he was a little concerned that the horse he labelled his biggest danger (Glamour Tycoon) was going to camp outside the leader and canter whereas it actually found the lead and cantered,” O’Sullivan said.
“I think the winning of the race was the move he made to get handy three-deep and she (Tomodachi) was right there when they let go.
“She is certainly very progressive and Andrew and I and the team really rate her although she is probably a season away from her best, but long term she has a real future.”
While playing a patient game with the four-year-old, O’Sullivan is keen to step her out in distance in the future.
“We think a mile is going to be her go although we did try to get her to run further as a three-year-old.
“She just raced a little bit hard in the running for that but once she learns who knows what her ceiling is.
“We will go home and have a look through the programme and see what is available to her before we make any decisions on where we go next.”
Hashizume was wearing his trademark beaming smile when questioned about the performance.
“She is a really really nice horse who jumped well and settled beautifully today,” he said.
“There wasn’t much pace on and I didn’t want to get too far away from the favourite, so I moved early to be closer and she kicked on well, hit the line strong and was very hard to pull up.”
The Sir Peter Vela-bred and owned daughter of Tarzino is out of Vela’s lightly raced High Chaparral mare Quintessentially and comes from a female line that includes horses of the calibre of multiple Group One winner Ethereal and Hong Kong Cup (1600m) winner Romanee Conti.
She has now won five of her seven starts and over $114,000 in prizemoney.