Racing: Blinkers do trick for Hastings trainers

BOLTER: Adventador defied all odds to power to victory in the Telegraph at Trentham on Saturday. PHOTO/FILE

IT was a case of two of just about everything as Hawke's Bay left another indelible impression on the richest sprint race in New Zealand at the weekend.

When jockey Matt Cameron powered to the line for victory on Adventador in the group one JR & N Berkett Telegraph race at Trentham on Saturday two Hastings trainers, Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen, created history.

The pair had trained Irish Fling to victory in the same race in 2014.

"To win two in the space of three years is no mean feat with two different horses," said a delighted Lowry back home last night.

The Fast 'n' Famous (Australia)-sired gelding, out of Kiwi dam Alpine Beauty, had finished sixth at the Telegraph last year and on Saturday things were looking shaky again when he "gave himself a fright" to bust through the running rail, throwing Cameron off his perch and doing a run around the course.

"It's what I would call a lacklustre run so he was just on a canter and a trotting pace but I didn't think he should be scratched ," said a laughing Lowry, suspecting it had something to do with putting the blinkers on the gelding for the first time in a race.

"We were quietly confident he was going to do well because we had him wear blinkers 6 to 8 weeks ago and his galloping was enormous.

"We kept him fit without blinkers but we were always going to put it on him at the Telegraph and we knew he was going to be no good without them."

CO-TRAINERS: Grant Cullen (left) and Guy Lowry, both of Hastings.

Consequently Lowry and Cullen were mindful the 7-year-old horse was going to be a bit more excited considering the blinkers didn't give him the comfort of peripheral vision.

As a 2-year-old Adventador "went with the wind" (windpipe complications that affected his intake of oxygen) and Lowry reflected that giving him a year's rest had paid off.

"It was big call to race him on Saturday. The stewards were worried he was injured but I was confident he was all right because he's a big horse who just pushed through the railings."

The horse earned owner Tony Ryder, proprietor of Clarence St Pak 'N Save supermarket in Hamilton, $250,000.

"Tony's one of my biggest owners and he's very loyal and he also owned Irish Fling," Lowry said, pointing out another case of two.

He felt the "broken windpipe" condition had curtailed the racing career of Adventador, who is confined to doing 1200m races only.

Trying not to get carried away in the euphoria, Lowry guardedly thought Saturday's field was one of the toughest Telegraph ones to assemble in the past few years.

Cullen prepared Miss Bailey during his solo career to win the 1999 Wellington Cup as a 142-1 shot.