Taika and jockey Jack Power clear the last fence on their way to a commanding win in a maiden hurdle race at Hastings last Saturday. It was the Irish rider’s first New Zealand success.
Irish jockey Jack Power could not have wished for a better first win on New Zealand soil than when he kicked one home for the Hastings training partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal last Saturday.
Power, 23, steered Taika to an impressive victory in the Best Forsyth Electrical Maiden Hurdle at the Hastings meeting, rewarding Nelson and McDougal for enticing him to New Zealand.
Power and his partner were keen to see other parts of the world and initially intended heading to the United States. But that plan soon changed when he saw a New Zealand job opportunity on Facebook.
“It is the off-season for jumping in the UK at the moment. I saw an advertisement on Facebook that Paul and Corrina McDougal were looking for someone, so I sent a message back.”
Power arrived in New Zealand just over a month ago and his first success came at his ninth ride in this country.
Taika is a relative newcomer to the Nelson/McDougal stable, having formerly been trained at Te Aroha by Gavin Opie, who prepared him to win two races on the flat.
The Mettre En Jeu 6-year-old was having his third start for the Nelson/McDougal stable last Saturday, following an unplaced run over 2200m at Rotorua in May and a good second in his hurdle debut over 2800m at Te Rapa last month.
Power has ridden Taika in both his jumping starts and said the horse was always travelling like a winner in last Saturday’s 2500m event.
Taika settled third in the early running before Power sent him forward to chase tearaway leader Invisible Spirit going down the back straight.
They closed on the leader coming to the home turn and went ahead after jumping the second-last fence.
Taika was clear jumping the last and raced away to win by five lengths from Ian’s Legacy, who just nosed out Lord Spencer for second.
Power was clearly delighted in notching his first New Zealand win, especially for his new employers.
“Paul and Corrina have been great. It is like home away from home. It was raining for two weeks when we got here, so there is not much difference that way.”
Power has tasted some success in his adopted country of England, having moved there following the Covid pandemic.
“I had one ride in Ireland and then Covid hit, so I headed to the UK, and I have been there nearly three years now,” he said.
“I have ridden 16 winners over there, 15 point-to-point and one on the track.”
Taika is now raced by Paul Nelson and his brother Mark in partnership with the horse’s original owner Ken Gardner, who lives in Waikato.
The gelding’s victory was some compensation for the Nelson/McDougal stable after one of their stars, No Tip, suffered a tendon injury when finishing fourth in the steeplechase at Woodville the previous Sunday and has now been retired.
The 11-year-old was the winner of eight races including both the Manawatu Steeplechase and Pakuranga Hunt Cup Steeples last winter.
Stablemate The Anarchist has been sidelined after he also suffered a tendon injury in the same Woodville race.
Proisir weanling gets a boost
Metrical scored a timely win for his Hawke’s Bay breeder Richard McKenzie when he broke through for a maiden win over 1300m at Bendigo, in Victoria, on Thursday last week.
The Time Test 3-year-old gelding, who was sold for $130,000 at the 2021 Karaka yearling sales, was having his eighth start and scored a decisive 1¼-length victory. He had previously recorded a debut second over 1200m at Taupō in September last year and another second over 1200m at Mornington on June 12.
McKenzie bred Metrical out of the Iffraaj mare Affrettando and he now has a weanling half-brother to him likely to be offered for sale at next January’s Karaka yearling sales.
The weanling is by New Zealand’s current leading sire Proisir out of Affrettando and was one of 26 young horses on show at last Sunday’s annual Hawke’s Bay/Poverty Bay Thoroughbred Breeders weanling walk.
There was a good attendance on the weanling walk, with five properties visited in the Hawke’s Bay area. Unfortunately, two other properties could not be accessed due to the extremely wet conditions.
The Proisir weanling is a strongly built colt and his second dam is Facing The Music, who won 10 races including the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m).
The other weanling McKenzie paraded was a filly by Per Incanto out of the unraced High Chaparral mare High Chapache and is also well developed.
McKenzie is also a member of a Go Racing Limited syndicate that had a runner in last Monday’s Group 1 Irish Derby (2400m) at the Curragh, finishing fifth.
Named Up And Under, the Lope de Vega colt is still a maiden but went into the Derby on the back of two seconds and a third.
Fannin achieves notable double
Hastings-born jumps jockey Shaun Fannin was full of emotion at the Hastings racecourse last Saturday after attaining a lifelong dream of winning the Hawke’s Bay Hurdle and Steeplechase double.
The two prestige jumps races had previously eluded the current champion jumps jockey and he was clearly overjoyed to snare both coveted jumping races.
Fannin started the day by guiding the Kevin Myers-trained Happy Star to a convincing six-length victory in the Te Whangai Romneys Hawke’s Bay Hurdles (3100m), giving a victory salute as they crossed the line.
He then partnered hot favourite West Coast to a dominant 16-length victory in the AHD Animal Health Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m), giving another emotional salute after the finishing post.
“It was a big thrill,” Fannin said.
“They were two races that I have always wanted to win, having grown up in Hastings and not having much luck there throughout my career.”
Fannin cut his riding teeth at the Hastings track, riding trackwork for Guy Lowry and Sue Thompson before heading off to school at Hastings Boys’ High.
He started out as an amateur rider in Hastings before taking out a professional licence after transferring to the Wanganui stable of Kevin Myers.
He has now ridden 146 winners and is assured of taking out the Jumps Riders’ Premiership again this season with 16 victories, 10 more than his nearest rival.
Record funding from TAB NZ
TAB New Zealand has announced its direct funding to the domestic racing industry will reach a record-setting $215 million for the upcoming 2023-24 racing season.
TAB NZ’s direct funding of racing is made up of a distribution payment to Racing New Zealand, the application of class 4 gaming proceeds to the Racing Authorised Purpose, and funding of the independent Racing Integrity Board.
The announcement sees a further $30m made available to the three racing codes in addition to the increases determined when Racing Minister Kieran McAnulty approved TAB NZ’s strategic partnering arrangement with Entain.
Nick Roberts, chief executive of TAB NZ, said the Entain partnership was a revolutionary moment for racing and one that would deliver the ultimate goal of a long-term, sustainable racing industry.
The increased funding comes from an additional $15m being added to the TAB NZ distribution to Racing NZ for the 2023-24 racing season, raising it to $185m – a $60m increase on the current season’s distribution of $125m.
Marsh joins 1000 win club
The champagne was flowing in Cambridge last Saturday night as local trainer Stephen Marsh celebrated bringing up his 1000th New Zealand win at Ruakaka earlier in the day.
The milestone had been a major goal for Marsh this season, and he was delighted to achieve it on Saturday, courtesy of the Brendan and Jo Lindsay-owned Arrowette in a 1600m maiden.
“I’m absolutely over the moon,” Marsh said. “We were hoping to tick it off this season, and we did.
“I was pleased it happened on Saturday and for such good owners. It was a massive thrill for not just me, but the whole team.”
Marsh is in his 20th season of training, having joined his father Bruce in partnership in their home region of Manawatū in 2002.
“I worked for Dad and then we went into partnership. I ran the Awapuni stables and he ran the Woodville stables.”
A pivotal moment in Marsh’s career was when his father left to train in Singapore in 2005, leaving him to make his mark on the New Zealand racing scene.
“When he went to Singapore I took the stables over myself and then two years later I moved to Cambridge,” Marsh said.
“We came up with six horses. It was a daunting start to it all. It was a big, wide world up here coming out of Woodville.
“Waikato is the hub of racing in New Zealand and it was easily the best decision I have made in my life.”
Marsh has accrued 71 stakes victories over the years and while there have been many highlights over that time, winning the 2019 Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) with Crown Prosecutor still rates at the top of the list.
While Marsh has had 1000 wins in his homeland, he has also celebrated plenty of success across the Tasman.
He produced Sofia Rosa to win the 2016 Group 1 AJC Oaks, which he says was a massive thrill.
“Winning a race like that was pretty special,” he said
The Cambridge trainer is closing in on 100 wins for the season and wants to exceed his previous best mark of 104, which he achieved last term.
Reihana Cooper tied makeshift weapons to his hands before the attack.