It may have taken until the tail end of his four-year-old season, but Darryn Weatherley believes his Group 1 winner Pier has finally furnished into a mature racehorse.
The son of Proisir was a standout three-year-old last term, winning the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), and placed in the Listed El Roca – Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m) and Group 3 Almanzor Trophy (1200m).
He then had one start in Australia in the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill where he pulled up sore, which curtailed his campaign.
Returning in the spring as a four-year-old, Pier failed to flatter when taking on weight-for-age, finishing unplaced in his three assignments, and has had a lengthy spell since his last run in the Group 1 Arrowfield Stud Plate (1600m) at Hastings in September.
“He had a couple of niggly issues, and it was more growing pains than anything, but it forced us to go to the paddock,” Weatherley said.
Weatherley, who trains Pier in partnership with his daughter Briar, has been rapt with the way he has returned, which was showcased at the Te Aroha trials on Thursday where he comfortably won his 1000m heat on the Heavy 8 track.
“He trialled well, I am really pleased,” said Weatherley, who also co-bred and co-owns the gelding.
“He had been out for several months, so I was a little bit concerned about the heavy track and the 1000m, I would have preferred 800m on a better track. But he got through his work nicely, I am very pleased with how he is going.”
Pier may return to Te Aroha in a few weeks’ time for a first-up run, which will determine whether Weatherley presses on with his charge towards a hit-and-run mission on the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm next month.
“He has got a nomination for the Stradbroke, but that is all pie in the sky stuff at the moment,” Weatherley said.
“He may have a run at Te Aroha if the track isn’t too bad in three weeks’ time and then reassess if we have a hit-and-run at something like the Stradbroke.
“If he happened to win by panels, you would consider it, or we might put him out for a short break and then prepare him for the spring.”
While Pier’s autumn and spring preparations were hampered last year, Weatherley said he has returned a fully mature horse and he is excited to see what he can do on the track.
“He has certainly improved this time in,” he said.
“Hindsight is a great thing, when he went out he was 484kg, which was the same weight he had won the 2000 Guineas a year earlier. I put him on the scales yesterday and he was 528kg. He has certainly grown with his break and improved, and I think he is only getting better.
“It was frustrating that he has had his little niggly issues, but they haven’t been career threatening by any means and I think it is more the point of just being immature.
“There’s that famous saying of Bart Cummings that we all know – the cheapest and least used thing is time.
“Because he came out all guns blazing as a three-year-old you press on, and we won a Hawke’s Bay Guineas and a 2000 Guineas, but I think as four-year-old he was like a kid that has been thrown into the first XV a year too soon, and now he has caught up with himself.
“He looks a different horse, he has matured and he is exciting going forward.”
Weatherley is also excited about the prospects of Proisir juvenile filly Gossip, who also won her 1000m heat at Te Aroha.
She was purchased out of Fairdale Stud’s 2023 New Zealand Bloodstock National Online Yearling Sale draft by her owner Gary Harding for $110,000, and has impressed Weatherley with what she has shown to date.
“1000m on a heavy track wasn’t ideal, but she did her work nicely and she has pulled up well and will go out on a winning note,” Weatherley said.
“She has shown us plenty at home and she has got a great temperament. She will go out now for a short break and then she will come back and prepare for the early three-year-old fillies races and hopefully go through for the Filly of the Year series.”
Horse racing news
