Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh heads to Trentham on Saturday with an opportunity to move ahead of arch-rivals Te Akau Racing in terms of Group and Listed wins in New Zealand this season.
The Te Akau team of Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson holds a clear premiership lead over Marsh with 97 wins to 68, but the two powerhouse stables are deadlocked with 13 black-type victories apiece. No other trainer has more than Robbie Patterson’s nine.
Remarkably, Marsh has collected nine of those 13 features since New Year’s Day alone – Bourbon Empress in the Gr.2 Rich Hill Mile (1600m), To Cap It All in the Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m), Provence in the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) and Gr.1 New Zealand Breeders’ Stakes (1600m), Ardalio in the Gr.3 Almanzor Trophy (1200m), El Vencedor in the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m), Gr.1 Otaki-Maori WFA Classic (1600m) and Gr.1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2000m), and Glamour Tycoon in last Saturday’s Listed Lightning Handicap (1200m).
Marsh has now won a total of 97 Group and Listed races in his career, with 94 in New Zealand plus three in Australia.
He will be represented in three of the four stakes races on Saturday’s Trentham card. Tale Of The Gypsy lines up in the Gr.1 Courtesy Ford Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), Kiwi Skyhawk contests the Gr.3 Higgins Concrete Manawatu Classic (2100m), and Glamour Tycoon will back up from her Lightning Handicap success and chase a second Listed win within the space of a week in the Bramco Granite & Marble Flying Handicap (1400m).
Te Akau has runners in all four black-type features, including a four-pronged Sires’ Produce Stakes contingent headed by favourite La Dorada.
Marsh respects the opposition but has a big opinion of Tale Of The Gypsy, who was a $180,000 purchase from Book 1 of Karaka 2024. The daughter of Written By won impressively on debut at Te Aroha in January, and has subsequently been plagued by wide gates when finishing fourth at Ellerslie, fifth in the Gr.2 Matamata Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) and fourth in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m).
“I thought she ran a huge race from a wide gate to finish fourth in the Sistema,” Marsh said. “She ran home in some very good sectionals.
“I’ve been thrilled with her in between times. She hasn’t had a good gate in her life and has drawn wide again on Saturday (gate 11), but she’s due a bit of a change of fortune and will hopefully get a bit of decent luck in the running. If she gets that, she could be a big improver.”
Kiwi Skyhawk brings the strongest form credentials into the Manawatu Classic, having run a close last-start fifth behind Willydoit in the Gr.1 Trackside New Zealand Derby (2400m). The Derby has been a solid Manawatu Classic guide in recent years, with beaten Derby runners The Chosen One (2019), Charles Road (2017) and Humidor (2016) winning the Manawatu Classic while the likes of Just As Sharp (2024), Desert Lightning (2023) and Beaumarchais (2017) have placed.
“There was a ton of merit in Kiwi Skyhawk’s performance for fifth in the Derby,” Marsh said. “He didn’t get all favours in the running, but still ran really well. He’s the highest-rated runner in the Manawatu Classic field by a couple of points. This race certainly isn’t the Derby. He’s going into it in good order and can run really well.”
Marsh was pleased with Glamour Tycoon’s Lightning Handicap win last Saturday and sees no reason not to back her up in the Flying Handicap.
“Her form has been hard to fault all season, and she was very tough down there at Trentham the other day,” he said. “It looked like the second horse (Platinum Attack) got his head in front and was going to pull away from her, but she fought back hard to get the win. It was great to see.
“She came through it really well. She’s a big, strong girl, so I’m happy to try backing her up into another Listed race on Saturday. I don’t expect the quick turnaround to worry her.”
Another source of excitement for Marsh on Saturday is the raceday returns of Velocious and Super Photon at Te Aroha and Trentham respectively.
“Velocious resumes in the open sprint at Te Aroha and Super Photon is in the 1200m three-year-old race at Trentham,” Marsh said. “They’re a couple of very classy, stakes-winning juveniles from last season – obviously Velocious was champion two-year-old. They’ve both had wind operations and are coming back up beautifully. I’ve been thrilled with their recent trials and I’m really looking forward to seeing them back at the races.”
Marsh identified the Gr.3 Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) at Te Rapa on April 26 as a potential target if Velocious performs up to expectations in this autumn campaign.
