The highly talented Holymanz is in line for a return to the country of his birth after scoring an effortless win in the $300,000 Coastal Classic (1700m) at Geelong on Saturday.
The four-year-old races in the colours of Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay, who are keen to contest the inaugural $1 million Aotearoa Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie on January 27. Top horse racing bookmakers reacted to Saturday’s performance by cutting his odds for the four-year-old feature from +1300 to +700. He is now an equal third favourite alongside Desert Lightning in a market headed by Legarto (+160) and Wild Night (+500).
Regardless of what the future holds for Holymanz, Saturday’s feature win was itself an enormously satisfying result for the gelding’s connections. After showing bright potential as a three-year-old including a second placing in the Group 3 CS Hayes Stakes (1400m) at Flemington, his progress was interrupted by a fall in the Group 1 Australian Guineas (1600m) that dented his confidence.
But trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have brought him back to the peak of his powers as a four-year-old, winning two of his last three races. His 12-start career has now produced four wins, three placings and $371,050 in stakes.
“He’s progressive,” assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said. “Henry Plumptre and Cambridge Stud have always thought he was a Group horse. He had a tumble in the Guineas last year, and he was travelling at that point of the race. It knocked him around. Even for him to come back and get back into winning form is fantastic.
“We set the horse for this race, and now that we’ve got this result, it leads on to a nice potential option at the Karaka Millions meeting in New Zealand in three weeks’ time.”
Holymanz was sent out as a +220 favourite, and jockey Michael Dee was delighted with how the horse was travelling throughout the race. He sat in a handy position before cruising into contention at the top of the straight while still under a tight hold.
Holymanz quickened in the straight and soon put the result beyond doubt, coasting to victory by three-quarters of a length over the fellow New Zealand-bred Bermadez.
“I knew that I didn’t want to lead today,” Dee said. “I was confident that Keats and Independent Road would make the move and go to the front, but it did take a fair while for that to eventuate. I was happy with where we were. We were able to hold a spot one off the fence.
“I wanted to stay off the fence, because we feel that he’s a better horse when he’s ridden outside horses and given plenty of room. He towed me into it coming down the hill, and he made easy work of it in the end.”
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