Zambezi Khan scored an impressive win in the 1000m two-year-old race at Tauherenikau on January 2 with Hercock aboard and then she added her black-type victory last Saturday.
Hercock produced a well-judged race to get Soldier Boy home by a short-head in the 2200m feature race at the Marton meeting.
She jumped her mount out well from an inside barrier and settled him perfectly one-off the fence in fifth position.
Hercock sat quietly until the home turn when she angled Soldier Boy into the clear and made her run.
The four-year-old hit the front inside the last 300m and then out-toughed his rivals in the run to the line.
Soldier Boy won at odds of 11 to one but his Stratford trainer, Gavin Sharrock, was confident of a winning run.
Sharrock had been forgiving of the son of Proisir’s previous unplaced effort in the Group 1 Zabeel Classic (2050m) at Pukekohe, where he carried 58kg under the weight-for-age conditions, and was bullish about his chances when he dropped to 54kg in a handicap at Trentham.
“They all said he hit Group 1 company and didn’t perform all that well, but they didn’t know the circumstances on the day,” Sharrock said.
“I was heading to Pukekohe and there was a burned-out car and traffic was held up for three hours and I had to go 30km out of my way to get there.
“It wasn’t ideal going into a Group 1 and he had also missed a lead-up race at Awapuni when they called the races off, but the run at Pukekohe did top him off well for Trentham.”
Soldier Boy was good enough to finish fourth in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie last season, where he was forced four-wide into the first corner and had to push on to lead. He was only run down in the last 200 metres.
Sharrock has a strong Cup assault
Allan Sharrock will have quality and quantity on his side when he bids to land another Group 3 Wellington Cup at Trentham on January 28.
The New Plymouth trainer won the 3200m staying feature in 2021 with Waisake, who will form part of a three-pronged attack on this year’s contest.
Waisake has been ticking over well in his quest for another Cup victory while his stablemates Ladies Man, the current $3.20 favourite, and Southroad both have good exposed form.
“I couldn’t be in a better place with them,” Sharrock said.
“Personally I believe Ladies Man is a bit short in the betting, but he is the favourite for mine and his run last Saturday was super.”
The son of Zed heads the Wellington Cup market after finishing strongly for third behind Soldier Boy and Sagunto in the Listed Marton Cup (2200m) at Trentham.
“It was his first time in open company and the winner had been running in weight-for-age races and I said before the race he would be the one to beat,” Sharrock said.
“The winner got a run through the middle and we went right around them with half a kilo more and came up only a neck short so it was a run that had plenty of merit.”
Waisake was a short-priced favourite in his bid for back-to-back Wellington Cups last year before a tendon injury ruled him out.
Also a son of Zed, he had his fourth run back from a lengthy break in Saturday’s Marton Cup and was doing his best work late to finish ninth, an effort that left Sharrock more than satisfied.
“He was huge with 59kg on his back and he’s coming to hand nicely. He drops to 56kg in the Cup so he’s got to be hard to beat,” he said.
Waisake is currently a $10 chance while Southroad is at $12 following his dominant victory in a Rating 75 race over 2200m at Trentham last Saturday.
“The up-and-comer absolutely bolted in and being by Shocking he will get two miles all day,” Sharrock said.
“Southroad will be the one that goes into the race short of the (lead-up) 10,000m that I like, but it doesn’t worry me with him because he will stay all day and the further they go the better he will be.”
Sharrock has also booked a trio of Group 1 winning jockeys to partner his Cup representatives.
“I’ve got good riders on all three so I’ve ticked that box. Jake Bayliss will stick with Southroad, Craig Grylls will be on Ladies Man again and Opie Bosson will jump on Waisake.”
Emotional day for Hannan
Apprentice jockey Kelsey Hannan was highly emotional when she won the Kumara Gold Nuggets last Saturday—but not because it was her 50th winning ride.
The in-form 19-year-old reached her milestone within a year of her first race ride when she took out the 1810m time-honoured West Coast feature aboard The Buffer.
But her tears following the race were not about hitting the 50-win mark, nor about the fact it came aboard a horse trained by her first mentors, Ruakaka trainers Kenny Rae and Krystal Williams.
Instead it was about a wish The Buffer’s part-owner Richard Bishop had three years ago.
“When I first moved down to Christchurch for a while and I was by myself down there, he pretty much took me in like his grandchild and looked after me really well, so we got quite close,” Hannan said.
“He told me ‘you’ll win the Nuggets on that horse one day. That’s my dream race, and I want you to ride him’.
“He’s very unwell, and he just got out of hospital for that race to come and watch it, so it was pretty bloody special.
“I actually didn’t know it was my 50th winner.”
Hannan has had a great deal of success with front-runners in her career and she won the Nuggets in that manner after kicking The Buffer up on the speed early, but said the race didn’t pan out exactly as intended.
“I didn’t want to lead, to be honest. I was punching forward to clear the horse inside me,” she said.
“But once I did that, and ended up in the lead, I knew my horse was happy enough in front so I was more than happy to be there. He relaxed really nicely in his own little sweet spot.”
It was the second win on the day at Kumara for Hannan. The first came in a Rating 80 event aboard Follow Your Dreams, another Rae-Williams horse that she had a strong emotional connection with.
“When I was with them, he was a two-year-old and I was his handler. I went to every race him, I rode him, and he was my absolute favourite,” she said.
“Then he happened to get named Follow Your Dreams, and I thought ‘that’s a bit ironic, that’s quite funny’.
“To go and win on him the first time, in August, was really special, and then at Kumara, that was a good one too. It was my first time riding him for ages and made it a special day.”
Hannan spent her first years working in the racing industry with Rae and Williams, who she says were instrumental in her success.
“They’ve had my back right the way through. They didn’t let me wander at all when I started – it was a case of if this is what you want to do, this is how you’re going to do it.
“They threw me in the deep end, but it really helped me mature as a person and as a rider. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am now today.”
After beginning with Rae and Williams, Hannan moved to Cambridge where she was initially with Ralph Manning before moving to her current employer, Shaun Phelan.
She didn’t have her first raceday ride until March last year and scored nine victories before the new season began on August 1.
“At the start of the season, I didn’t have that many goals because I didn’t know what he season would bring. However, Shaun got me to set some goals, and we were going for one or two wins a week,” she said.
“As we started hitting that mark, we thought ‘let’s go bigger’. We wanted to aim for 50 to 60 wins for the season.”
As it turns out, Hannan may reach 50 wins before the season reaches its halfway mark at the end of this month.
