Hastings trainer Guy Lowry says entering horses in the mould of group 1 Livamol Classic is what thoroughbred racing is all about. Photo/file
Hastings trainer Guy Lowry says entering horses in the mould of group 1 Livamol Classic is what thoroughbred racing is all about. Photo/file
You can say Hastings co-trainers Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen have had ample time to saddle their dreams and are now ready to ride them.
After all, in dreams, anyone can be anything and everything seems do-able, especially if they were bedded on the first leg of the Hawke's Bay Spring Racing Carnival — the Tarzino Trophy TAB Daffodil Raceday on Saturday in Hastings on Saturday.
For Lowry and Cullen that sense of well-earned escapism comes after jockey Michael Coleman rode Atlanta Peach to victory in race 8, Remember "Jooky" Mile, in a respectable field of eight.
The burning question is what makes the adroit pair want to inject the budding stayer straight into the marquee Livamol Classic 2040m race on the platform of a benchmark rating 72 race success?
"She's got a long-term goal of running at the Livamol," said Lowry, who bought the 5-year-old bay mare about two years ago although he's not sure if the horse was bred in New Zealand although her lineage is in Australia.
"You've got to dream and, if the right track conditions come up, others don't step up and you do then you've got to be in with a chance," Lowry said.
He should know because they had an emphatic victory on Wait a Sec, with jockey Johnathan Parkes in the saddle, when they clinched the group 1 crown here in October 2017. It was memorable because the then home-bred Postponed 7-year-old gelding had stolen the thunder from Gingernuts, the then sizzling hot favourite Iffraaj 4-year-old. It came after the original race was called off a fortnight earlier when the meeting was abandoned due to adverse track conditions.
"You've got to get them to these sorts of races," said Lowry but admitting Atlanta Peach was still inexperienced at the higher echelons.
Michael Coleman rides Atlanta Peach to victory in the 1600m Remember Jooky Mile race in Hastings on Saturday. Photo/Trish Dunell
Sired by Bullbars, out of Flame of Atlanta, Atlanta Peach had crossed the line 1.25 lengths ahead of the Tony Pike-trained Five Stars, with Leith Innes in the saddle, over the 1600m distance.
"She's a handy mare but she has not performed on that track before but you know she's good enough to beat that sort of field off track although it wasn't an off track," Lowry said, alluding to a typically dead 4 track on officially the last day of winter. "To win on that was a nice surprise."
Atlanta Peach has yielded four wins to date for the owners, Pak'nSave Syndicate and TV Rider, despite having had only 11 starts. She has traditionally performed on a wet surface but Lowry immediately dismisses any suggestions the horse is typically suited to Saturday's conditions.
Instead, he likes to think the curators of the Hawke's Bay Racecourse 1700m left-turn track, with a 375m straight at the finish, came up with palatable fare for just about every horse type.
"It's shown great ability with a little bit of cut in the ground so I didn't expect that sort of showing," he said, adding it wasn't often they came across such a surface at any New Zealand venue. "She's shown a good turn of foot and won well."
He saluted Coleman for his nous, noting the jockey's patience but not surprised that someone of his calibre would do anything otherwise.
For the record, Katrina and Simon Alexander sponsored race 8 Remember Jooky Mile in memory of their son, the late Jackson "Jooky" Alexander, who had lost his battle with skin cancer two months ago. The diagnosis had come on Daffodil Day 2014, his last year at Napier Boys' High School.
Katrina had relinquished her trainer's licence and everything equine to help him fight cancer.
Jooky had urged his nursing mum to resign from her "good" banking job to pursue what she dreamed of. Katrina applied for her trainer's licence last month and now the parents mentor horses in partnership, based in Matamata.
Syndicate owner Tony Ryder, owner of Clarence St Pak'nSave in Hamilton, has maintained his loyalty with Lowry and Cullen.
When jockey Matt Cameron had powered to the line for victory on Adventador in the group one JR & N Berkett Telegraph race at Trentham in January in 2016, Lowry and Grant Cullen had created thoroughbred racing history. The pair had trained Irish Fling to victory in the same race in 2014.
Last Saturday, the Hastings co-trainers' other entry, Mohaka, was three-quarter length behind Five Stars as Robert Hannam rode her home in third place.
The 4-year-old bay mare, sired by Nadeem (Australia) out of Diplomacy (Great Britain), was bracketed for a season-loosening run in Taupo 10 days ago but it was called off.
"So she was a little under done, hence hitting the front she was running a little out of condition," Lowry explained.
However, he didn't have any immediate ambitious plans for Mohaka.
"We do like her," he said. "I mean she's been placed three times in a stakes already so, obviously, we'd like her to be a black type as well."
Trainers tend to build a resume of victories for black types earmarked for breeding value.
"She's had a good beginning and she's going well but she probably just lacked a little fitness on Saturday," he said.
Hastings co-trainers Guy Lowry (left) and Grant Cullen know all about winning the group 1 Livamol Classic in Hastings so they have a licence to dream. Photo/file
