Fukubana, a 4-year-old gelding by Dundeel, made a winning return after a lengthy injury-enforced layoff when taking out an A$50,000 Class 2 race over 1350m at Doomben last Saturday while Zucchero followed up two days later with a dominant maiden win in an A$30,000 race over 1280m at Muswellbrook.
Kayano Ltd also owns a 10% share in Northeasterly, a promising 4-year-old in the Cambridge stable of Roger James and Robert Wellwood, who has won his last two starts, the most recent in a Rating 65 race over 2100m at Te Rapa on January 16.
Murray Andersen said this week that, after a quiet time for Kayano Ltd last year, things are really starting to pick up.
“From our last five starters we’ve had four wins and a third.”
Fukubana’s win last Saturday followed a fresh-up third over 1200m at Eagle Farm on January 18, in what was the horse’s first race for almost 12 months.
The gelding started a warm favourite and, after settling back in the field, jockey Andrew Mallyon managed to capitalise on a perfect rails run in the straight to drive the horse through for an impressive length win.
Kayano Ltd bred Fukubana out of the Lohnro mare Sekiyama and race him in partnership with a large group, with the horse trained by Matthew Dunn at Murwillumbah. He has only his eight starts for three wins, a second and two thirds.
Fukubana showed tremendous promise as an early 3-year-old last season, winning two of his first four starts before finishing fourth in the Group 2 A$400,000 Hobartville Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill in February.
He then lined up in the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1600m) where blinkers were added to his gear and he over-raced. He finished at the tail of the field and was found to have split his pelvis.
It meant the horse spent a long time recuperating before he could even return to full work and thus he didn’t resume racing until last month.
Andersen said Dunn is now aiming the gelding at the A$1 million Country Championship Final (1400m) at Randwick on April 5.
“It is a race solely for country-trained horses over there and Fukubana will have his next start in another country race at Lismore in three weeks’ time,” Andersen said.
“It is a race over 1400 metres and worth A$150,000 and, hopefully, he will then get into the Country Championship Final.”
Kayano Ltd also has two full-brothers to Fukubana in work with Matthew Dunn. One is a three-year-old called Seki, who was twice unplaced on rain-affected tracks late last year, and the other is Tsunuki, an unraced 2-year-old that Andersen describes as “a really nice looking horse who shows promise”.
Zucchero is also a lightly raced 4-year-old and is by Dundeel out of the Snitzel mare Sweetener. He was having just his fourth start when he lined up at Muswellbrook on Monday and his first race for 12 months.
Andersen said the horse started his racing career from the stable of Michael, John and Wayne Hawkes and recorded two fifths and an eighth from his first three starts.
He was then transferred to the Scone stable of Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich and went into Monday’s race on the back of two minor placings in barrier trials.
Andersen said the stable wasn’t confident of a fresh-up win by Zucchero and yet he was sent out a red hot $1.40 favourite and scored a dominant one-and-three-quarter length win.
Northeasterly was a $900,000 purchase from the Karaka yearling sales and is a four-year-old gelding by The Autumn Sun. He is raced by a syndicate set up by John Messara, the principal of Arrowfield Stud in Australia.
He has had five starts for two wins, a second and a third and is now entered for a $65,000 Rating 75 race over 2100m at Te Rapa this Saturday.
Busy Hercock racking up the wins
Much-travelled Hawke’s Bay jockey Kate Hercock kicked home a brace of winners at Gore last Sunday at the end of another busy week for the talented horsewoman.
Hercock was successful aboard Sefton and Amiinit at Gore to take her tally of wins for the season to 32 and cement her place in the top 10 on the national jockeys’ premiership.
Few jockeys travel as much as Hercock, who also combines race-riding with training a small team of horses from her Ōtāne base.
She lined up three horses at the Waverley meeting on Wednesday of last week, picking up a third with Zaravela and a fourth with Wish Me Well and rode in six of the eight races on the card.
She then had another five rides at last Saturday’s New Plymouth meeting before boarding a plane the next day to compete at Gore, where she had six rides for two wins and a second.
Hercock was supposed to ride at Christchurch on Wednesday but transport issues prevented her from making the meeting. However, she was booked to ride six horses at Tauherenikau on Waitangi Day, seven at Dunedin’s Wingatui track today and five at Otaki tomorrow.
Sefton, who was one of Hercock’s two winners at Gore, is a former Hastings-trained galloper and won two races when prepared by John Bary and raced by his Hawke’s Bay breeder Chris Russell.
Russell then decided to sell the horse last year and he is now owned by his Timaru trainer Vicky Ramhit in partnership with his brother Vickash and jockey Rahul Beeharry.
Ardalio gets NZB Kiwi slot
Impressive last-start winner Ardalio is the latest horse to be picked for a slot in the inaugural running of the $3.5 million NZB Kiwi.
The lightly-raced filly has been selected by The King’s Men to represent their slot in the 1500m feature at Ellerslie on March 8.
The King’s Men moved quickly to snap up Ardalio less than a week after her victory in the Group 3 Cambridge Stud Almanzor Trophy (1200m) during the Karaka Millions twilight card at Ellerslie on January 25.
In only the third start of her career, the daughter of Ardrossan exploded out of the pack to score a brilliant win. Her time of 1:08.86 was the second-fastest in the history of that feature three-year-old sprint.
Ardalio is a fitting representative for The King’s Men, whose syndicate member Mark Carter shared in the ownership of Ardrossan under his family’s Jomara Bloodstock banner.
Ardrossan’s ownership group also included Ardalio’s owner-breeder Lib Petagna’s JML Bloodstock, and the stallion himself raced from the Cambridge stable of Ardalio’s trainer Stephen Marsh.
“We’re thrilled to have secured such an exciting filly to race for our slot in the NZB Kiwi,” Carter commented. “She’s won twice from only three starts and has been hugely impressive.”
Ardalio’s win in the Almanzor Trophy qualifies her for a share in an additional $1 million in bonuses on top of the NZB Kiwi’s base prizemoney. Horses that win selected Bonus Eligible races in either New Zealand or Australia, then finish in the top three in the NZB Kiwi, will receive bonuses of $600,000 for first, $250,000 for second or $150,000 for third.
“That initiative around the extra $1 million in bonuses was another real attraction from our perspective,” Carter said.
Petagna has first-hand experience with the concept of slot races. He also shared in the ownership of his homebred sprinter Lost And Running, who finished fourth in the A$15 million The Everest (1200m) at Randwick in October of 2021.
“We’ve seen the excitement that these slot races can create,” he said. “One of the great things about them is the intrigue and interest that they generate through the weeks leading into the race as the Slot Holders make their selections.
“It’s exciting to have a filly that we bred and race ourselves selected for the race, and it’s a real boost for her sire Ardrossan as well.
“We didn’t take Ardalio to the sales because she wasn’t particularly big. We sent her to be pre-trained by Sam Logan, who really liked her all the way through, and then she went to Stephen Marsh and she didn’t take long to make a big impression on him.”
Marsh has been similarly proud of what Ardalio has achieved within the space of just three starts so far. She made her debut at Matamata on December 20, kicking off her career with a stylish come-from-behind win.
Her first look around Ellerslie on January 12 produced a second placing, beaten by a head by Waikato Stud’s NZB Kiwi representative Sought After.
But it was the Almanzor Trophy that took her career to new heights.
“She’s still only lightly raced, and what she did on Karaka Millions night was outstanding,” Marsh said. “She’s a filly with a huge amount of upside.
“Her next start will be in the Lisa Chittick Champagne Stakes [Listed, 1400m] against the older mares at Matamata on February 15. That’s a suitable distance progression from the 1200m of the Almanzor, and it also gives us the right spacing with three-week gaps between the Almanzor, the Lisa Chittick and the Kiwi.”
