Apprentice jockey Jim Chung urges Written Up across the line to take out a 1000m maiden race on the new Awapuni synthetic track last Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Written Up became the first Hastings-trained winner on the new Awapuni synthetic track when he scored a game-maiden victory there last Sunday.
The newly constructed track is now one of three synthetic surfaces in the country open for racing on. The others are at Cambridge and Christchurch.
Work started on the Awapuni track in January last year and it has been used for trials and jumpouts since the start of this season.
The synthetic tracks have been designed to avoid race meeting cancellations when grass tracks become too wet. The free-draining surface is made from sand, wax and twine, and the material is regularly turned over.
The Awapuni track cost $13.5 million, $10.5m of which came from the Provincial Growth Fund, and the rest from the Race group, which also runs racing at Otaki and Trentham in Wellington.
Manawatū Racing Club staged only six races at last Sunday’s meeting and the total number of entries was low, with only 49 horses competing.
Written Up contested race four, a $14,000 maiden race over 1000m.
The Wrote three-year-old colt drew the number one barrier and apprentice jockey Jim Chung bounced him out well from the barrier to lead in the first 50 metres before taking a trail.
Written Up got a gap, one off the fence, rounding the home turn and dashed through to hit the front inside the last 250m. He then managed to stave off the challengers in the final stages to win by a long neck from Lincoln Valley and Platinum Fury.
Both minor placegetters are prepared at Awapuni by Lisa Latta, a trainer who can see the benefit of the new synthetic track. She says she has been working her entire team on the newly implemented surface.
“Having that even, consistent surface all the time helps,” Latta said.
Latta has had a fantastic season to date, claiming 10 stakes victories and amassing more than $2.2m in prizemoney for her owners.
Written Up is trained at Hastings by Dean Howard and is owned by him in partnership with close friend Mike Warren. They bought the colt off his Hawke’s Bay breeders, Graham and Isabell Roddick, Mark Lucas and Robyn Laughton.
He is out of the Mastercraftsman mare Muchado, who was unplaced in three starts but descends from the family of Alacrity, winner of five races including the 1996 Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m).
Written up was having his seventh race start but his first since early December. He showed potential as a late two-year-old last season with a fast finishing second over 800m at Hastings on debut.
Howard said this week the horse had come through Sunday’s success in excellent order and he may now look at running him in a $30,000 three-year-old race over 1100m at Te Rapa on May 20.
Class is permanent
Hastings stablemates The Cossack and Nedwin, two of the country’s star jumpers last winter, returned to winning form with dominant performances on different racetracks last weekend.
While The Cossack cruised to a three-and-a-half length win over the steeplechase fences at Te Rapa on Saturday, Nedwin was just as decisive when taking out a jumpers’ flat at Otaki the previous day.
The two hoses, prepared by the Hastings training partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal, took out some of the country’s major jumping races last season.
The Cossack was unbeaten in five domestic jumping races including the Grand National Hurdle, Great Northern Hurdle and Hawke’s Bay Hurdle. Those victories saw him crowned Champion New Zealand jumper for the second successive year.
Nedwin won a maiden hurdle race at Hastings in June last year and went on to take out his next three starts over fences, including the Wellington Hurdle at Trentham and the Pakuranga Hunt Hurdle at Te Rapa.
Co-trainer Paul Nelson said both horses will again be aimed at feature New Zealand jumping races this winter but will need to be strategically placed to avoid incurring too much weight.
“Nedwin will probably go to the Awapuni Hurdle at Wellington next while The Cossack won’t go to Wellington but we will look at the Waikato Steeplechase for him,” Nelson said.
The $70,000 Awapuni Hurdle (2800m) will be run at Trentham on May 27 and the $70,000 Waikato Steeplechase (3900m) will be run at Te Rapa on June 17.
The Cossack scored back-to-back wins in the $30,000 Ken & Roger Browne Memorial Steeplechase (3900m) at Te Rapa last Saturday. He looked well weighted on 67.5kg and so it proved, the Mastercraftsman nine-year-old easily accounting for his four rivals despite a change of rider.
Shaun Phelan has been the horse’s regular rider in the past two years but he was injured in a fall at the Warrnambool meeting in Australia last week so Dean Parker was entrusted with the mount.
Parker initially settled the horse at the back of the small field but took closer order starting the last 1200m and lodged a challenge for the lead rounding the home bend.
The Cossack quickly asserted control and won with plenty in reserve, his 14th victory from 50 starts.
He is raced by Nelson in partnership with three other Hawke’s Bay people, Peter Grieve, his son Doug and John Frizzell.
Nedwin was having his first start since September last year when he lined up in the 2100m jumpers’ flat at Otaki but had been well prepared, including a win in a 2400m point-to-point on April 16.
Jockey Emily Farr sent the Niagara eight-year-old forward from the outset to trail the leader and he was travelling keenly in the moderately run race. He went up to challenge for the lead rounding the home turn and took over soon after, racing clear to win easing down.
Nedwin was recording his eighth win from 26 starts and is raced by Paul Nelson and his wife Carol in partnership with the horse’s Gisborne breeders Mick and Suze Gardner.
Lowry breeds Hong Kong winner
Hastings thoroughbred trainer Guy Lowry is the co-breeder of Seizing The Moment, a dominant winner at last Sunday’s Shatin race meeting in Hong Kong.
The six-year-old Per Incanto gelding scored a runaway two-and-a-half length victory over 1400m to bring up his fourth success in Hong Kong and has now amassed stake earnings of more than HK$5.3m (NZ$1.07m).
Lowry bred the horse in partnership with Little Avondale Stud proprietor Sam Williams and they initially raced him together from Lowry’s stable. He was named Dark Alley then, and won two of his first three starts before being sold to clients of Hong Kong trainer John Size.
Seizing The Moment is out of the Towkay mare Queen Alley and descends from the family of the stakes-winning mare Gold Spot.
Injured Phelan keen to go back
Jockey Shaun Phelan’s first visit to the Warrnambool carnival didn’t go as planned and the Cambridge horseman is keen on a return to tend to unfinished business.
The country’s reigning champion jumps jockey had unplaced rides on opening day last Tuesday aboard Not Usual Dream and Johnny Buccaneer in maiden hurdle events and on Abacus in the Brierly Steeplechase (3450m).
The following day he suffered a nasty fall from Mighty Oasis in a 3450m steeplechase to end his participation.
“I got back home over the weekend and I’m pretty sore and stiff, I’ve got compressed fractures of the T6 and T7,” Phelan said.
“It’s not as serious as it sounds and they’re not going to move so it just needs some time and I’ll be getting plenty of physio.
“I definitely want to get back over there, maybe again this year as I’ve been getting a lot of support.”
Phelan has his fingers crossed his recovery will be a smooth one and he can firstly reunite this winter with champion jumper The Cossack.
“I’m hoping I’ll be out for less than six weeks, I want to ride The Cossack if he runs in the Waikato Steeplechase,” he said.
The $70,000 3900m feature will be run at Te Rapa on June 17.
Phelan has been the regular rider of the Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal-trained son of Mastercraftsman. Their major wins include the Grand National Hurdle (4200m), Great Northern Hurdle (4200m) and the Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m).
He also partnered the gelding in two Australian starts last winter, where they were runner-up in the Grand National Steeplechase (4500m) at Ballarat.
Bosson inducted into Hall Of Fame
Six people and four horses were inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame on Sunday night in a gala dinner in Hamilton.
They included champion racehorses Verry Elleegant, Melody Belle and Beau Vite, leading trainers Paul O’Sullivan, Michael Moroney and George Price and outstanding jockeys Opie Bosson and Keith Voitre.
Since the inaugural New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame dinner in 2006, 41 horses from racehorses to stallions and broodmares, and 53 people – trainers, jockeys, owners, breeders and administrators – have been inducted to the elite list that honours New Zealand’s highest achievers in the thoroughbred sphere.
Champion jockey Opie Bosson said it had been a long-standing ambition to one day be inducted alongside those he admired so much.
“It means the world to me,” Bosson said. “It’s good just to be recognised for my achievements. It is really, really cool.
“Lance O’Sullivan was my idol as a kid and he was inducted in the inaugural Hall Of Fame and I thought it was something I really wanted to achieve.”
With 91 Group 1 wins to his name, Bosson is keen to hit the century within the next few years, while he is also closing in on 2000 career wins in New Zealand.
It was a memorable night for O’Brien in the 22-strong Superstock class.