Mystery Show has the opportunity to step up in class tomorrow at Hastings. Photo / Race Images
Mystery Show has the opportunity to step up in class tomorrow at Hastings. Photo / Race Images
She packs a fair bit of attitude but then you would expect that from a 3-year-old filly who goes by the name of Mystery Show and packs 535kg in her frame.
"She's fairly cantankerous," says her trainer, James Bridge, before the chestnut lines up in the $70,000 stake winners' 1200m Hawke's Bay Breeders Gold Trail Stakes in Hastings tomorrow.
Mark Du Plessis will be in Mystery Show's saddle in the 3.16pm start of the group 3 race which is part of the second leg of the New Zealand Spring Racing Carnival in the province.
"She's got a good barrier 5 so she should be slightly better than midfield," says Bridge of Mystery Show's chances.
The daughter of Sakhee's Secret (GB sire) and Showstra (NZ dam) is coming off a first (Mullins Tyres Pearl Series Fillies Classic at Whangarei on April 16) and a second placing (1000m Cookson Plumbing at Avondale on August 27) to make many racing savvy types cast a second glance at her.
"She showed a turn of foot at the last start so we can afford to be more patient than other horses," says the 34-year-old Hastings-born trainer who is working out of Byerley Park in Karaka, near Auckland.
However, Bridge is heading back home to Hawke's Bay in November to engage in livestock farming at Pourere Beach, where he also intends to continue his training business.
"Beach training is great for the horses. The ocean comes in all directions and grooms the sand for some beautiful surfaces," says the former Lindisfarne College pupil whose making the most of a farming opportunity that has opened up in a Bridge lineage whose history is steeped in agriculture.
His parents, semi-retired Jackie and John Bridge, live in Havelock North.
"John's invested in several horses. We own most of our horses and we trade them in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia," says Bridge, of his father who was always involved with horses during his farming days, albeit more as a hobby than as a livelihood.
James Bridge's grandfather, the late Stanley Bridge, also influenced him to be involved with everything equine.
James Bridge.
Bridge is relatively new in the game of training, having taken the leap seven years ago in Melbourne, where he was carving a profession in advertising as an art director, building a rapport with companies in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne.
He got his feelers out with Melbourne trainer Lee Freedman.
"I got a grounding from another racing family in Sydney, Paul Messara, at Arrowfield Stud in Scone [New South Wales]."
A year later Bridge returned to New Zealand.
"I'm kind of an outgoing person and like to be physical and hands-on but I still have a business in advertising for stimulation."
He sees the Ian and Mrs D Farrelley (Te Awamutu) bred-and-owned Mystery Show in the Gold Trail Stakes as opportune time for her to showcase her potential.
"It's the first chance to get some black type and really perform. It'll be a big year ahead of her if she steps in class."
