Group One winner He’s A Doozy (NZ) (Zacinto) snapped a sequence of disappointing performances with a three-length runaway in the Wanganui-Taranaki Racehorse Owners Association Open (1600m) at Wanganui on Saturday.
The Zacinto gelding was one of the standouts of the central districts as a five-year-old two seasons ago, winning the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) and Gr.3 Thompson Handicap (1600m) at Trentham along with a successful southern raid on the Gr.3 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile (1600m) at Riccarton.
He’s A Doozy added an open handicap victory over 1600m at Trentham in March of last year, followed by a second in the Gr.2 Awapuni Gold Cup (2100m), but was unplaced in all of his seven other starts in that campaign. That trend continued into his seven-year-old season, finishing no closer than fourth in his first 10 appearances of 2024-25.
But that all changed on Saturday. Trainer Lisa Latta came into the $50,000 feature with cautious optimism that He’s A Doozy might be back on his game, and his performance proved her absolutely right.
Jockey Kelly Myers pushed He’s A Doozy forward out of the gates and took up a position in second behind the front-running favourite Khafre (American Pharoah).
He’s A Doozy cruised up alongside Khafre and appeared to be travelling better than that runner coming up to the home turn, and then he pounced at the top of the straight.
Myers asked He’s A Doozy for full effort and he kicked away, opening up a three-length margin over Khafre and the late-finishing Chase.
“We definitely haven’t seen anything like that from him all season,” Latta said. “But he looked fantastic in the parade ring today, bright in the eye and in the coat.
“I said to Kelly that I wanted us to go forward and be right there turning in. Being a bit older, the bit of moisture in the ground has probably helped him today and he’s won really well.”
Saturday’s performance was a sharp turnaround from He’s A Doozy’s last-start run at Riccarton on March 22, where he finished at the back of a 10-horse field and more than 16 lengths from the winner.
“I had the vet go over him down south, and she thought he might have been having an allergic reaction,” Latta said. “We gave him a bit of treatment. I thought we had him pretty spot-on coming into today.”
He’s A Doozy has been a superb performer for Latta, who bought him for $70,000 from Phoenix Park’s draft in Book 1 of Karaka 2019. He has now had 44 starts for 10 wins, five placings and $655,575 in stakes.
Now that He’s A Doozy is back in the winning groove, Latta is keen to chase a Listed prize at Awapuni on April 25.
“We’ll probably go to the Anzac Mile (1600m) next, and then we’ll just see what the weather’s doing before making any other plans,” she said.