The future is looking bright for Andrew Forsman’s two-year-olds, with sharp gelding The Espy (NZ) (U S Navy Flag) defeating stablemate Belle Noire (NZ) (Turn Me Loose) in the Saddlery Warehouse Cambridge and Tauranga (1100m) on Sunday.
After a smart trial victory at Ellerslie in mid-February, The Espy was a warm favourite to repeat that performance at Waverley on debut, but was caught three-wide throughout and finished fifth behind Pacific Breeze.
Three weeks later, The Espy travelled to Tauranga and remained a short-priced favourite, albeit drifting late in the betting to close at $2.10 over Fast Net ($5.40). There was a sense of déjà vu early in the race, as The Espy stepped away only fairly and once again, was caught three-wide while Belle Noire led up the juvenile field.
The filly was green turning for home and still kicked well, but The Espy was right on her tail and soon took over, showing a serious turn-of-foot in the hands of George Rooke to score by 1 – ¼ lengths.
Rooke has been aboard the son of U S Navy Flag through his trial and race-day appearances and impressed the English hoop with his performance.
“He trialled very nicely, we took him to Waverley and thought he would be hard to beat that day but he was just very green underneath me,” he said. “We went slow and quickened up, which really didn’t suit him.
“Today, the same sort of happened, we jumped and didn’t get away very fast and I was aware of that, I didn’t want it to turn into a sprint so I kicked on.
“For about five strides at the top of the bend, he just speed-wobbled with greenness, but when he got 200m out, he was really galloping along. He’ll get 14 and a mile next year very nicely.
“What he’s shown us is just a glimpse here today, he could be a very nice horse.”
Bred by The Oaks Stud, The Espy was purchased for $100,000 by Forsman at the 2024 Karaka Yearling Sales and was subsequently passed in after failing to meet his $150,000 reserve at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sales in November.
Forsman had also had confidence coming into Waverley debut and was pleased to see his gelding deliver on that promise second-up.
“It was a hard call to bring him back to the races after being three-wide without cover last time and I think he’s a seriously good horse,” Forsman said.
“It didn’t really unfold how we wanted it to today but he was good enough to get away with it.
“He’s got a long way to go physically, so whether we need to go one more, we’ll leave that up to him and see how he comes through it. He’s handled the day really well, but physically he’s got so much improvement and he’s going to be a really good three-year-old.”
A filly by Turn Me Loose, Belle Noire was a $50,000 purchase out of Windsor Park Stud’s draft at Karaka, impressing Forsman enough to return in January to purchase her full-brother for $30,000.
“She was super, she was very professional today and did everything right, she’ll only improve with that run,” he said.