A comprehensive three-length victory at Matamata on Saturday has set promising three-year-old Tar And Cement (NZ) (Reliable Man) on a path to the Gr.2 Fusion Electrical Wellington Guineas (1400m) at Trentham next month.
The Reliable Man gelding made it two wins from two starts when he led all the way over 1400m on the weekend for trainer Tony Pike, who has a big opinion of his charge.
“He’s a very promising type who has taken a while to get his act together,” Pike said.
“He’s a pretty well put together horse who is quite versatile.
“He led in several of his trials but first up at Hastings he bombed the start and came from well back to win.
“There wasn’t a lot of pace in the race yesterday, so I left it up to Leith (Innes) as to how he would ride him.
“The track certainly suited those on the speed early on, so he let him bowl along and he did the job very nicely.”
Despite the comfortable nature of the victory, Pike is well aware Tar And Cement’s racing manners are still a work in progress.
“He was quite green in the run home when he let him off the bridle, so we still have work to do there,” he said.
“He had quite a few barrier trials before he went to the races as he was very much a work in progress.
“He wanted to do a hell of a lot wrong, but on his breeding, we believe he will get better with age so there’s a lot to look forward to.”
Bred and co-owned by Darryl Burrow, the president of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association, Tar And Cement has attracted plenty of interest from offshore interests with Pike resigned to the possibility the horse could be sold, having fielded numerous calls after his debut victory and more again overnight.
“There has been plenty of interest in him and the phone has been going constantly last night and again this morning (Sunday),” he said.
“I’m going to give Darryl a call and discuss it all with him.
“Darryl and his wife have been family friends for a number of years and I’ve trained quite a few horses for him.
“We will see what eventuates going forward, but he has plenty of scope to develop into a pretty handy horse.”
Tar And Cement is out of Burrow’s Stravinsky mare Classical, a daughter of stakes winner Showtime who is the dam of former Queensland galloper Game On.