Duncan Creek (red bridle) stretches his neck out between horses to snatch a half-head win in the $45,000 Rating 75 race over 1400m at Trentham last Saturday.
A minor gear change and just a week between races had the desired effect on Hastings-trained galloper Duncan Creek at Trentham last Saturday.
The Super Easy 4-year-old showed a real will to win in the final stages of the $45,000 Rating 75 race over 1300m, stretching his neck out on the line to score a short head-head victory in a close four-horse finish.
It was only Duncan Creek’s third success from 22 starts but he had been running good races without winning, including seven second places.
One of those runner-up placings was over 1400m at Trentham the previous Saturday, where he got to the front early in the straight but was run down.
The horse raced in full cup blinkers that day and trainer Patrick Campbell felt he was starting to switch off when left in front, when he couldn’t see other horses around him.
So Campbell decided to change the horse’s head gear to just visor blinkers and back him up with only a seven-day break.
“I think the visor blinkers certainly helped,” Campbell said this week.
“He was able to see the other horses around him and really put in the last bit.”
Hawke’s Bay jockey Kate Hercock rode Duncan Creek on Saturday, one of two winners for her on the day. She got the horse to settle into a trail behind the leaders until the home turn and then angled her mount across heels to lodge a claim.
Duncan Creek quickly went up to challenge for the lead and kept a strong run to the finish.
Less than half a length covered the first four horses across the line with Duncan Creek winning by half a head from Share Power, who was only a nose in front of third-placed Tanzanite Rose with fourth placegetter Dancarina a further nose back.
Duncan Creek earned a further four rating points for the win and is now rated on 76, which makes it hard to place him in races now.
“He’ll probably have to run in open class and we could look at the 1400m open sprint on Marton Cup day at Hastings on January 6,” Campbell said.
Duncan Creek is owned by his Dannevirke breeder Alex Smith and is by Super Easy out of the King’s Chapel mare Classic Blonde.
Since Duncan Creek, Classic Blonde has left a 3-year-old gelding called Fonzi (by Shamexpress) as well as a 2-year-old filly by Proisir and a yearling colt by Ferrando.
Fonzi, who is also now in work with Campbell, had four starts when trained in the north for three seconds and contested the Group 2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial (1400m) at Te Rapa at his last start.
The Hastings training partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal and some of the horses they prepare again dominated this year’s annual Hawke’s Bay/Poverty Bay Thoroughbred Awards, held at the Hastings racecourse on Wednesday last week.
The Nelson/McDougal stable took out most of the awards in the 2021-22 racing season and they were again to the fore in the season just completed.
Paul Nelson won the Owner of the Year Award, worked out on a points system, while he and McDougal took out both the Trainer of the Year Award (for the most wins for the season) and Trainer of the Year Award (on winning strike-rate).
The Cossack, one of the star jumpers in the Nelson/McDougal stable, was crowned both the Hawke’s Bay Poverty Bay (HBPB) Trained Horse of the Year and the HBPB Owned Horse of the Year.
The Mastercraftsman gelding is owned by Paul Nelson in partnership with three other Hawke’s Bay men, Peter and Doug Grieve and John Frizzell.
During the season under review, The Cossack won the $70,000 Waikato Steeplechase and finished a close second in the A$300,000 Australian Grand National Steeples. He also finished third in the $75,000 Wellington Steeplechase.
The Cossack was bred by Hawke’s Bay’s Ivan Grieve, who was again presented with the Breeder of the Year award for New Zealand-bred progeny, while The Cossack’s dam, Stellardelmar, was Broodmare of the Year for the second successive year.
In his presentation speech, Grieve said Stellardelmar, who cost A$90,000 to buy as a yearling in Australia, unfortunately died during the past year when in-foal to Vanbrugh. But he added that he has four close relations to The Cossack coming on.
Murray and Jo Andersen took out the award for Breeder of the Year on overall wins, while the Andersens and Mike and Sharyn Craig were joint winners of the Breeder of the Year award for overall points.
The 3-year-old of the Year Award for the best three-year-old bred by a HBPB member (on points) was won by Duncan Creek, while a new award known as the HBPB Thoroughbred Rising Star was presented to talented apprentice jockey Lily Sutherland.
The breeders of black-type winners Itza Charmdeel (Mike and Sharyn Craig), Nedwin (Tom Lowry), No Tip (Paul and Carol Nelson) and The Cossack (Ivan Grieve) were all presented with Group & Listed awards.
Another special award, known as the HBPB Horlicks Salver, was presented to Waipukurau’s Kirsty Lawrence for the huge amount of work she has done for the Hawke’s Bay racing scene during the past year. She was to the forefront when giving help after the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and has been the organiser and overseer of the New Zealand Pony Scurry Series staged on different racetracks in New Zealand. She is also president of the Waipukurau Jockey Club and regularly organises jumpouts to be run on the Waipukurau track.
She also managed to combine all this with training a small team of horses herself and produced six winners from 36 starters in the last racing season for a winning strike-rate that was second only to the Nelson/McDougal stable in the Hawke’s Bay/Poverty Bay area.
Commentator George Simon summed up what many were thinking at the finish of the first race at Te Rapa last Saturday when he uttered the well-known catch cry ‘there’s only one Opie Bosson’.
Bosson had just guided the raging hot favourite Move To Strike to a seemingly effortless debut victory over 1100m, in the process lodging win number 2000 in New Zealand in a superlative career.
The 43-year-old was typically understated when questioned about his achievement, preferring to shower praise upon the Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson-trained colt, who he believes could prove to be a very special horse in the future.
“That was pretty cool really,” Bosson said.
“I knew he was the horse I could get it [2000 wins] on today and to do it for David [Ellis] and the whole Te Akau Racing team is just an extra bonus.
“Any milestone in a career is good and it is an elite club to be part of.”
Bosson has constantly battled weight issues during a career that began in 1995 with a win at Gisborne as a 15-year-old apprentice. He becomes the eighth member of the 2000-win club, joining Chris Johnson, David Walsh, Lance O’Sullivan, Noel Harris, David Peake, Bill Skelton and Michael Coleman.
He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his contribution to the thoroughbred industry in June this year.
Former Trackside presenter Jason Tan was delighted and humbled to be part of a fitting finale to the decorated career of Damien Oliver.
He was at Ascot in Perth last Saturday to cheer Oliver to victory in the last three races on the card, and most especially Munhamek’s fairytale success in the Group 3 Gold Rush (1400m) named in honour of the champion jockey.
Tan shares in the ownership of the Nick Ryan-trained Munhamek, with another partner being Australian racing presenter Clint Hutchison.
It was something of a surreal experience for Tan on Saturday with such a dream closure to Oliver’s time in the saddle, and a wonderful ride befitting of the occasion.
“When you draw that wide at 17, you’re in the lap of the gods, or Damien as it was,” Tan said.
“I was standing next to Clint and not far from Nick, watching the race at ground level.
“I didn’t see the finish live because I ran to Nick and just about tackled him over the fence and by that time he’d crossed the line and won and the crowd was going off.”
A commanding win in last Saturday’s Group 2 $175,000 Cal Isuzu Stakes at Te Rapa completed a rare fillies and mares’ feature double for Campionessa.
The Te Akau Racing mare became only the fourth horse to win the Group 2 Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1400 ) and the Cal Isuzu in the same season, joining Just Apollo (1995), Calveen (2004) and Ruud Van Slaats (2008).
Campionessa was bought by David Ellis for A$60,000 on the Gold Coast as a yearling in 2019, and her 26-start career has now produced nine wins, eight placings and more than $677,000 in stakes for the Te Akau Campionessa Syndicate. Waipukurau’s Michael Ormsby owns a small share in the syndicate.
The Contributor mare was runner-up in two Group 1 races last season and will now try to go one better in the Group 1 $450,000 Zabeel Classic (2050m) at Pukekohe on Boxing Day.
The Christmas story also recalls another birth, John. This is why it all matters to me.