Promising Hastings-trained three-year-old Mr Bully Tee has his ears pricked as he coasts to the line for a dominant 1¼-length maiden win over 1400m at Hastings on May 30. Photo / Supplied
Hastings-trained horses were in outstanding form over the two race days held on their local track in the past fortnight, winning seven of the 17 races run.
The postponed Fruitfed Supplies race day was staged on May 30 and resulted in three Hastings-trained winners in Eparaima, Mr Bully Tee and Red ‘N’ Surf.
A second meeting that had been scheduled for Te Aroha was run at Hastings last Monday and had four of the nine races won by Hastings-trained horses in Shackelton’s Edge, The Cossack, Gohugo and Darwin.
Guy Lowry trained three of the seven winners, Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal prepared two while Vicki Wilson and the Mick Brown and Sue Thompson stable chalked up a win apiece.
Arguably the most impressive of the local winners was Mr Bully Tee in a three-year-old maiden race over 1400m.
The Complacent gelding certainly deserved the success after going down by a nose when second over 1600m at Hastings in mid-April and also recording a good second over 1400m at Hastings in December.
It was little wonder he was sent out a hot favourite last week and his supporters had no concerns whatsoever during the running.
Jockey Michael McNab let the horse settle in the last three or four in the early stages before starting to pick a path between horses coming to the home turn.
Once angled into the clear Mr Bully Tee showed quick acceleration to race up and join the leaders and then surged clear to win by 1¼ lengths, with McNab only having to shake the reins at his mount over the final stages.
A happy and relieved co-trainer Mick Brown said this week the win helped justify the high regard he and his wife Sue hold the three-year-old in.
“It was a very good win .. it was like an exercise gallop for him,” Brown said.
Now that he has cleared maiden ranks, Mr Bully Tee is unlikely to be seen on the racetrack again until next season.
“He will go out for a spell now and have five or six weeks off and then come back and be prepared for the rating 65 races at the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival,” Brown added.
“It’s nice to have him in the stable and I think he will come back a lot stronger horse.”
Mr Bully Tee is owned by American-based couple Butch and Lu Thomas, who bred the gelding out of the Red Giant mare Brigantine.
He is the second living foal produced by the mare, the first being a gelding by Sweet Orange called Origin, who has been unplaced in seven starts for Dannevirke owner-trainer Barry Beatson.
The Brown/Thompson stable is also preparing a yearling half-sister to Mr Bully Tee, by Time Test.
A treble of victories by Hastings trainer Guy Lowry in the past fortnight has taken him to a three-win lead over John Bary in the race for the Hawke’s Bay premiership this season, with the partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal just one win back on 12.
Lowry produced Eparaima to take out a 1400m maiden race at the Hawke’s Bay meeting on May 30 and then saddled up two other maiden winners in Gohugo and Darwin at Monday’s Hastings meeting.
Eparaima’s win was a real Hawke’s Bay triumph because the filly is owned and raced by a large group, many of whom live in Central Hawke’s Bay.
The Per Incanto three-year-old filly was bred by former Hawke’s Bay Racing chairman Mick Ormond and is raced by him in partnership with several of his family members and friends, and is named after the family farm in Wallingford.
She is out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Eva Godiva, who was the winner of one race and is a daughter of the stakes-winning mare Gussy Godiva.
Eparaima was having her fourth start and the win followed a third and a fifth.
She was ridden by Sam Weatherley who positioned her outside the leader until the home turn before lodging a claim for the lead. The filly quickly took control and kept up a strong run to the line to win by a long neck.
The Lowry stable lined up two horses at Hastings on Monday for a 100 per cent winning return. Gohugo scored a half-length victory over 1400m while Darwin was a dominant 1¼-length winner over 1600m.
Both horses were coming off only fair last-start performances but showed good improvement on the slow track and were part of a winning treble for Hawke’s Bay jockey Kate Hercock, who earlier took out the rating 75 race aboard the Hastings-trained The Cossack.
Gohugo is a four-year-old gelding by Per Incanto out of the Perfectly Ready mare Mint, who was the winner of four races when trained by Guy Lowry in partnership with Grant Cullen.
Lowry said this week that Gohugo will again line up on his home track at his next start, in a rating 65 race over
Darwin’s win added to a successful week for veteran Hawke’s Bay thoroughbred breeder Tom Lowry, who owns and races the Darci Brahma mare.
The four-year-old is out of the Don Eduardo mare Edwina, who is also the dam of the exciting jumper Nedwin, a 13-length winner over 2200m on the flat at Trentham on May 2.
Darwin is likely to start next in a rating 65 race over 1700m at Awapuni next Friday.
Hastings trainer Paul Nelson was pleasantly surprised to welcome his stable’s jumping star The Cossack back to the winner’s stall following the TLJ Handicap (2200m) at Hastings last Monday.
New Zealand’s Champion Jumper, The Cossack was having a hit-out on the flat to keep him up to the mark ahead of next week’s $70,000 Waikato Steeplechase (3900m) but he proved a class above his seven rivals, racing away for a 2¼-length win.
“He was pretty full of himself and seven weeks between runs was a bit much, so we thought we would give him a run. The win was a bit unexpected though,” said Nelson, who trains in partnership with Corrina McDougal.
The Cossack’s last win on the flat was in The Road To Jericho (3210m) at New Plymouth in September 2021, but he has had only two other flat runs since then.
“He had won a couple on the flat before we got him,” Nelson added.
The Cossack completed a winning double for the Nelson/McDougal stable at Hastings on Monday as they also took out the quinella in the Mike King-I Am Hope Steeplechase (4000m), with Shackeltons Edge scoring by 3½ lengths from The Anarchist.
It was a great training feat by the Nelson/McDougal stable to get Shackeltons Edge ready to win in his first race start for nearly two years.
The Thano nine-year-old had shown plenty of talent over fences, winning his maiden steeplechase before finishing runner-up in the 2021 Wellington Steeplechase (5500m) at his last start before injuries sidelined the gelding.
The horse underwent rehabilitation at Dianne Sergeant’s Carlton Lodge in Hastings before heading north to continue his recuperation with Te Aroha trainer Gavin Opie.
He continued to improve and subsequently returned to the Nelson/McDougal stable and, while they were pleased with his condition, they weren’t sure what to expect first up.
Shackeltons Edge produced a dominant performance in the hands of Hamish McNeil, disputing the pace with Zedman for much of the race before racing clear over the final stages.
Stablemate The Anarchist made steady ground from the back to out-finish Zedman for second by 5½ lengths.
Nelson said Shackeltons Edge suffered a tendon injury for a start and he had the tendons injected. He then suffered another suspensory ligament injury.
“We are very grateful to Dianne Sergeant and her daughter Tina, who were a big help with his rehab,” Nelson said.
“Then he went up to Gavin Opie, who had him on the water walker for a couple of months, and he came back to us pretty fit.”
Both Shackelton’s Edge and The Anarchist are likely to return to the Hastings track on July 1 for the $70,000 Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m).
Hastings-trained Red ‘N’ Surf turned his form around when he cleared out from his rivals in a rating 65 race over 2200m at Hastings on May 30.
The Redwood six-year-old, owned and trained by Vicki Wilson, hadn’t won a race since taking out a 2050m maiden at Wanganui in April 2021 and an eighth had been his best placing from three previous starts this season.
But the horse had obviously been sharpened up by having a jumping trial over 2000m at Cambridge last month, which he won by a neck.
Talented apprentice jockey Lily Sutherland was aboard Red ‘N’ Surf for Monday’s win and she knows the horse well because she is indentured to Vicki Wilson at present.
She settled the gelding midfield on the inside from the outset and bided her time until the last 600m. She then angled her mount away from the fence and circled the leaders coming to the home turn.
Red ‘N’ Surf shot clear early in the home straight and kept up a strong run to win by 4 lengths.
Sutherland, 19, has been in outstanding form, with Red ‘N’ Surf being the first of five winners she kicked home in the space of six days.
Among those wins was her first black-type success aboard Chantilly Lace in the Listed $65,000 Castletown Stakes (1200m) at Wanganui last Saturday.
Sutherland is on loan to Whanganui trainer Kevin Myers and says she has learned a lot from the astute horseman.
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