Hawke’s Bay to the fore with Fun Test’s Reefton win: John Jenkins

Fun Test and rider Tina Comignaghi are well clear of their rivals when crossing the finish line in a 1400m maiden race at Reefton on Wednesday last week.

The famous black-and-white hooped colours that represent the Hawke’s Bay rugby team were carried to victory on the West Coast’s Reefton racecourse on Wednesday of last week.

Fun Test, a mare owned by Hawke’s Bay couple Hilton and Claire Meech, sported those colours when she scored a decisive one-and-three-quarter-length win in a 1400m maiden race on the middle day of the iconic West Coast racing circuit.

Hilton Meech was a member of the all-conquering Hawke’s Bay rugby team that held the Ranfurly Shield from 1966 to 1969, a team that included All Blacks Kelvin Tremain, Ian MacRae, Bill Davis, Neil Thimbleby, Blair Furlong and Mick Duncan.

Tremain is now deceased but he and Meech raced a jumper together in the mid-1980s called De La Bay, who won the Marshall Memorial Steeples at Awapuni one day carrying those black-and-white colours.

“When Kel died, I decided to keep the racing colours and I’ve used them ever since,” Meech recalled this week.

Horses to have carried those colours to victory since include Wunderbar, who was unbeaten in four starts for legendary Takanini trainer Colin Jillings, Vamoose, who recorded four wins and four second places from 23 starts, and Hicks, whose seven wins included the Listed Stewards Handicap (1400m) at Trentham.

Bred by the renowned Fairdale Stud in Palmerston North, Fun Test is by Time Test out of the Pins mare Its All Fun and was bought by Meech as a weanling for $900 from the Gavelhouse auction site in 2021.

The filly was broken in by Hastings-based Fred Pratt and he trained her for her first preparation, picking up a third and two fourth places from five starts.

Meech thought she needed time to strengthen and develop so she was then given a lengthy spell before being transferred to the Whanganui stable of Kevin Myers.

Myers gave the now 4-year-old three barrier trials late last year and she won the third of them, over 1400m, at Foxton on December 17. She was then added to the team of horses he regularly campaigns with on the West Coast circuit and was having her first start for 12 months when she lined up at Reefton.

In-form South Island jockey Tina Comignaghi was booked to ride her and gave the mare a 10 out of 10 ride, settling her into the perfect trail before angling her away from the inside rail coming to the home turn. Fun Test hit the front soon after and won with plenty in hand.

Myers decided to back Fun Test up three days later, at last Saturday’s Kumara meeting, but it meant she was dropping back in distance to 1150m.

Comignaghi was again aboard and settled her midfield in the early running but Fun Test then lost ground when making the tight 700m bend awkwardly and blundered, drifting back to second-to-last approaching the home turn.

She started to make a run in the straight but then had to be severely checked when eventual winner Giussepe Ferrante moved in sharply inside the last 50m and she lost all momentum, finally finishing fourth.

Terry Moseley, the rider of Giussepe Ferrante, later admitted a charge of careless riding in that he allowed his mount to move in when insufficiently clear and was suspended for four riding days.

Bargain buy blooming down south

A $500 outlay through the Gavelhouse auction site five years ago is now paying dividends for the Hawke’s Bay father-and-son combination of John and James Bridge.

That was the pair’s successful bid on a weanling filly by Redwood out of the No Excuse Needed mare Marcelle, when they were looking to buy a young horse back in 2019.

That filly is now a 6-year-old mare called Ravenna Rose who scored back-to-back wins when taking out a $25,000 Rating 75 race at Kumara last Saturday and has now recorded three wins, five second places and a third from 19 starts and has amassed more than $59,000 in stakemoney.

John Bridge recalled this week that they were drawn into buying Ravenna Rose after realising that her grandam was an unraced Zabeel mare called Proustian, who had been bred by Sir Peter Vela.

“She was a horse that had good breeding so we decided she was worth the punt,” Bridge said this week.

The father-and-son partnership trained Ravenna Rose themselves in her early career and prepared her to win a maiden race over 1800m at Taupō in October 2023.

They then transferred the horse to the New Plymouth stable of Robbie Patterson, who produced her to record a few minor placings before suggesting that she would probably be better suited racing in the South Island.

Ravenna Rose is now in the care of Riccarton trainer Anna Furlong and she has given the horse two starts for two wins, the first over 2000m at Greymouth on January 5 and the second over 1810m at Kumara last Saturday.

In her first win on the West Coast circuit, at Greymouth, Ravenna Rose settled fifth and one off the fence in the early running but was then sent forward quickly to take the lead with 500m to run.

The mare had a good advantage over her rivals turning into the home straight and kept up a strong run to the line to win by one-and-a-half lengths.

At Kumara last Saturday, Ravenna Rose was caught three-wide in the early jostle for positions before settling second and then tracking the leader to the home turn.

Apprentice rider Amber Riddell then shot her to the front, making the bend into the short home straight before having to withstand a late charge from race-favourite Sheaf to cling on and win by a head.

James Bridge said Ravenna Rose is now likely to have a short break before being aimed at some of the richer races at Riccarton in the autumn.

“She has always shown us plenty and it looks like she will get over a bit of a distance,” Bridge said.

Hastings winner a breath of fresh air

The Hastings training partnership of Guy Lowry ad Leah Zydenbos found exactly the right race for the talented sprinter The Stoney One at Trentham last Saturday but they are now in a quandary as to where to start the horse next.

The Stoney One added to his good Trentham record with a last-to-first win in the $65,000 Open 1100m sprint at Trentham, capitalising on a late rails run to score by a head over fellow Hastings-trained mare Fancy Like Lass.

The Stoney One is a Pierro gelding who has always shown good ability but lacks size and has been plagued by breathing problems.

The horse has undergone two wind operations and, although his breathing is now considerably improved, it still does restrict him to a certain extent.

“That’s why 1100m races suit him because there is always plenty of pace on and he can be held up for one late run,” Guy Lowry said this week.

“That’s how he won on Saturday.”

Jockey Craig Grylls allowed The Stoney One to drop out to last in the nine-horse field from the outset and just bided his time until well into the home straight. He then stuck to the inside rail and managed to drive his mount through late to score a long-head win.

The Stoney One now boasts a record of four wins, five second places and five thirds from 20 starts and has won more than $155,000 for his owners, Cambridge-based Tony Rider and Peter Jeffares from Auckland.

He was a $45,000 purchase from the 2020 Karaka yearling sales and is Australian-bred, being out of the Charge Forward mare Western Gem, who was the winner of four races from 10 starts in Western Australia.

Lowry said The Stoney One could now contest a $50,000 open sprint over 1200m at Whanganui on January 25 but given the horse’s small stature, he is worried he could get too much weight over a distance that is probably at his limit.

“I’d love to get him into another 1100-metre race but there isn’t any around,” Lowry added.

Injury could end top mare’s career

The burgeoning racing career of Bellatrix Star is in jeopardy following an accident at Cranbourne last week.

The Fortuna Syndicate-raced mare fractured her neck following an incident when exiting the swimming pool and will undergo further veterinary examination to assess her racing future.

“She had an accident as she was exiting the pool, she reared right over onto her back and fell heavily,” Fortuna director John Galvin told Racing.com.

“She was on the ground for 10 or 15 minutes, but she gradually got to her feet and was walked back to the box where she was examined by the vet and then X-rayed. She’s got fractures in her neck.

“The good news since is that she’s bright, she’s alert, she’s eating well and her vitals are good.

“Obviously, her autumn campaign that we had planned is out the window and it’s possible that she may never race again, but we don’t know that for sure at this stage.

“Given her race record to date, she’s got a fair value as a broodmare prospect so that would be plan B if she couldn’t race again.”

Bellatrix Star was purchased out of the 2023 Karaka yearling sales for $80,000 by Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis.

She won on debut for trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson in New Zealand and went on to win the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes (1200m) and finish runner-up in the Listed Counties Challenge Stakes (1100m) behind subsequent Group 1 winner Velocious.

The daughter of Star Witness was a revelation in the spring in Victoria, winning three consecutive races: the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes (1100m), Group 3 Scarborough Stakes (1200m), and Listed Cap D’Antibes Stakes (1100m), before finishing runner-up to Switzerland in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m).