Gohugo and apprentice jockey Lily Sutherland are well clear of their rivals at the end of a Rating 65 race over 1340m at Whanganui last Saturday. He is likely to back up at the Whanganui meeting this Saturday.
John Jenkins is a longtime racing journalist based in Hawke’s Bay.
OPINION
Hawke’s Bay Racing, in conjunction with New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, are in the throes of creating a “Master Plan” for the redevelopment of the Hastings racetrack and associated land.
Following a special meeting of Hawke’s Bay Racing board members on Monday, club chairman Richard Riddell released a statement to members, sponsors and supporters of Hawke’s Bay Racing on Tuesday.
Riddell said the original plan was to perform some initial redevelopment work on the track that would hopefully see a return to racing within 12 to 18 months.
However, following a meeting with track experts, it soon transpired that the cost to bring the track back to acceptable specifications in the short term would be “dead money” as future development would mean this work would be redundant.
It means there will be no racing on the Hastings track for a long time but NZTR regards Hastings as one of the country’s strategic racetracks and has agreed to assist Hawke’s Bay Racing with funding its operational costs and creating a “Master Plan” for the redevelopment of the club’s facilities.
The HB Racing Board anticipates receiving draft terms of agreement in the coming days under which NZTR will fund Hawke’s Bay Racing’s operational and interest costs until September 2025 (or longer if need be). In addition, NZTR will fund the cost of the Master Plan for the racecourse and associated land.
The Master Plan will be the blueprint for the future of racing at Hastings for decades to come.
A Planning Control Group (PCG) is being formed to work on developing the Master Plan, consisting of three members from NZTR and three members from Hawke’s Bay Racing. It will be chaired by Steve Bramley, who has done a lot of work with NZTR. The Hawke’s Bay Racing representatives are to meet with those from NZTR on Tuesday next week (January 28).
With NZTR providing the funding going forward, they have requested they appoint a transitional chief executive to oversee Hawke’s Bay Racing’s day-to-day operations once the present CEO, Aaron Hamilton, leaves on January 31.
That person will be Darin Balcombe, who is presently the chief operating officer for NZTR and a former CEO of Hawke’s Bay Racing.
“Darin understands the Hawke’s Bay Racing business and the board is comforted by having him in this role,” Riddell said.
The track staff, consisting of manager Bryce Mildon and assistant Phil Lyons, will remain as will Stacey Bacon and Tracy Andersen in the office to continue to provide invaluable support to Hawke’s Bay Racing and other racing clubs.
This means the track will continue to be available for use as a training venue for Hawke’s Bay-based trainers.
Riddell said the two properties purchased by Hawke’s Bay Racing, on Railway Rd and Paki Paki Rd, are still on the market with renewed interest in both since the beginning of the new year.
All systems go with Hastings-trained winner
It has been a long time between celebration drinks for the connections of Hastings-trained galloper Gohugo but the horse certainly produced his best when taking out a Rating 65 race over 1340m at Whanganui on Monday.
The 6-year-old Per Incanto gelding, prepared by the partnership of Guy Lowry and Leah Zydenbos, was recording only his second win but has also chalked up five seconds and seven thirds from his 26 starts and has been unlucky on several occasions.
One of those unlucky runs was at Ōtaki two starts back, where Gohugo was slow away and then caught three-wide in the running before running on strongly to finish fourth and only a neck from the winner.
He is a horse that has always shown plenty of ability but has been restricted by breathing problems and has undergone a wind operation.
As a result, he has to be kept to short sprint distances and normally needs to be held up for one short burst at the finish.
Gohugo was again in the rear division in the early stages of last Monday’s race but was suited by a fast pace set by the speedy Lady Rosabella.
Rider Lily Sutherland decided to send him forward from the 700m peg and he quickly shot around the field to be in a challenging position rounding the home turn.
Lady Rosabella still had a handy advantage over the field early in the home straight but Gohugo soon ranged up outside her and surged clear in the final stages to win by one-and-a-half lengths.
The win took Gohugo’s rating to 66 which means he is no longer eligible for Rating 65 races.
With a lack of suitable Rating 75 sprint races in the Central Districts in the coming weeks, Lowry and Zydenbos have decided to back the horse up in a $40,000 Rating 75 race over 1340m at this Saturday’s Whanganui meeting.
Gohugo was bred by Feilding farming couple Neil and Yvonne Managh who race the gelding in partnership with their son Andrew.
He is out of the Perfectly Ready mare Mint, who was the winner of four races when also trained by Guy Lowry when he was in partnership with Grant Cullen.
Mint is also the dam of the talented mare Penny Royal, who was also bred and initially raced by the Managh family and won seven races and more than $90,000 in stake money from Lowry’s Game Lodge Stables.
She is now retired and is in foal to Noverre, who included the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) among his wins and now stands at Waikato Stud.
Allpress faces long recovery again
Star jockey Lisa Allpress was only just resuming her record-breaking career after a long period of injury rehabilitation when it was halted again by a freak accident at Trentham last Saturday that left her with three breaks in a leg.
It wasn’t even a racing accident but a pre-racing accident, with Allpress’ mount Hickory Jack rearing up and falling backwards before race four, landing on her leg.
The horse was okay, the race delayed, but Allpress was left on the Trentham turf wondering what she’d done to deserve another gut punch in a magnificent career punctuated by injury.
“What have I done to deserve this again?” was her opening comment to husband Karl from a hospital bed.
“She is pretty down, as you would expect,” he said.
Allpress has broken her tibia just below the knee with two breaks further down, requiring an operation to insert rods.
Karl Allpress said he has fielded numerous calls asking how Lisa is and has also been asked whether this latest injury will be the end of the 49-year-old’s race-riding career.
There is, of course, nothing left to prove if Allpress chooses that path. She turns 50 in May, has won the national jockey’s premiership a remarkable four times and has 119 black-type winners in New Zealand.
However, there is another number that looms on her horizon, or maybe now beyond it. Allpress has ridden 1956 winners in New Zealand and would love to be the first female rider to kick home 2000 here.
“There is that, but she has actually ridden over 2000 winners if you count her overseas winners,” Allpress said.
“We have spoken about the 2000 target in the past, but I have told her she is already a 2000-race winner.
“But those conversations, about what happens next, are probably a fair while away yet, and obviously it is Lisa’s decision.
“If she says ‘this is enough’ and chooses to retire, then we will all be so proud of what she has achieved and the things she has had to overcome.”
NZ breeds now to the fore in sprints
New Zealand may be synonymous with breeding top-class middle-distance and staying horses, but now it is proving just as dominant with its sprinters.
Last year New Zealand-bred Lucky Sweynesse was ranked the world’s best sprinter with a rating of 125, and 12 months later compatriots Ka Ying Rising and I Wish I Win share top honours with American speedster Cogburn, with ratings of 121, in the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.
Ka Ying Rising has been a sensation in Hong Kong for trainer David Hayes, where he has recorded back-to-back elite-level victories, with last Sunday’s win in the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) lowering the Sha Tin track record.
“The emergence of Ka Ying Rising under David Hayes and Zac Purton for the Ka Ying Syndicate has been a wonderful success,” Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
“Starting out as an unraced import, Ka Ying Rising has surged through Hong Kong’s always competitive sprint ranks to stand as our premier sprinter with his incredible performances, including the setting of a new Sha Tin course record for 1200m, to now be acknowledged as one of the world’s premier sprinters.”
While Ka Ying Rising has dominated the sprinting scene in Hong Kong this season, he could have some competition in the form of a renewed Lucky Sweynesse, who is making a pleasing comeback from injury.
The multiple Group 1 winner has been off the scene since last April when he had surgery on his left front fetlock after he was injured when winning the Group 2 Sprint Cup (1200m).
He has been pleased with his comeback, including finishing runner-up in a 1000m trial at Sha Tin on Tuesday morning, and is on track to make a return in the Sprint Cup on March 30.
The owner was banned from owning dogs for five years after the attack.