Tautu, a horse lucky to be alive let alone racing, defied the odds when he took out a maiden race over 1550 metres at Awapuni last Saturday.
The 4-year-old gelding was having his fifth start and scored a decisive two-length win over Star Quality and race favourite Rip Into Ghia.
Tautu is prepared by Hastings trainer John Bary and boasts excellent breeding, being by Thorn Park out of the Galileo mare Sirani.
He was bred by Waipukurau's Mick Ormond in partnership with his former neighbour and close friend Belinda Scott, who now lives in England.
The pair raced Sirani together from the then New Zealand stable of John Sargent and she was the winner of three races from only 11 starts, over distances ranging from 2100m to 2400m.
Tautu was Sirani's first foal and was originally catalogued as part of the draft offered by Little Avondale Stud at the 2015 Karaka yearling sales. However he was not considered big enough to command a decent price and was withdrawn.
Sargent, who had moved to Australia by then, offered to buy the horse on behalf of Hong Kong owner Oliver Wong for $140,000.
However within five days of the sale being finalised Tautu was struck down with a bout of pneumonia which led to a serious heart affliction so Ormond and Scott reimbursed Wong the purchase price and kept the horse.
"Not many horses survive such a thing and he has been under the care of a vet since he was a yearling," Ormond said this week.
"He seemed to come right and we thought we might try him as a racehorse but couldn't race him at 3 because he had an irregular heartbeat.
"He's been treated with hundreds of human heart pills ever since and it has been touch and go whether he would ever get to the races.
"John Bary had him in work for a start and then we turned him out and then he went back into work for this season. He seems fine in himself and is a lovely moving horse but he does have a heart murmur of two out of six and it is a permanent problem that will always be there," Ormond said.
Tautu certainly showed plenty of heart in his winning performance last Saturday. After beginning quickly from the barrier jockey Masa Tanaka settled the horse third until the home turn. Tautu quickly bounded up to challenge for the lead early in the home straight before surging clear in the final stages.
Ormond said Tautu is likely to have his next start in a Rating 65 race over 1600m at Waipukurau on December 10 and could then be tried over a middle distance.
He is certainly bred to excel over longer distances as his grandam Sneetch finished third in the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and it is the family of Black Mamba, who won seven races up to 2400m; and Roman Emperor, who won the group one Australian Derby (2400m) and finished second in a Caulfield Cup (2400m).
Tautu is a half-brother to Pissaro, by Pierro, who is also part-owned by Ormond and Scott and finished a gallant fourth in the group one Victoria Derby (2500m) at this year's Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington.
Ormond and Scott have a Per Incanto colt out of Sirani that they will offer at the Magic Millions yearling sales on the Gold Coast in January and the mare now has a Fastnet Rock foal at foot which they intend to keep. She has been served again by Pierro.
Ebbetts nearly get a double
The Waipukurau husband and wife training team of Tony and Penny Ebbett went close to a 100 per cent winning record with their two horses at Awapuni last Saturday.
Pincanto scored a runaway win in a $10,000 maiden over 1300m while Royal Ruby only went down by a short head when second in the $22,500 Rating 65 race over 1550m.
They are the only two horses the Ebbetts have racing at the moment. Both are mares by Per Incanto and both look likely to progress to better things in the coming months.
Penny Ebbett said this week she got a special thrill out of the win by Pincanto as she and Tony only took the horse over in September after she had previously been trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman at Cambridge.
Pincanto is owned by her Havelock North breeders Dave and Jenny Morison and had seven starts from the Baker/Forsman stable for two seconds and three fifths.
"She has always shown she can gallop and finished fifth in a Listed race at Ellerslie as a 2-year-old but I don't think the big stable environment suited her," Dave Morison recalled this week.
"She was a bit light on it when she came down and raced at Hastings about Christmas time last year and so we decided to keep her here."
Taupo-based Roger Harvey, a close friend of the Morisons, and his brother Graeme decided they would like to take a racing share in the horse with Taupo stock agent David Gash.
"She went up to Roger's place at Taupo for a few months and came back looking good so then we had to decide who would train her," Morison said.
That is when she was offered to the Ebbetts, with Dave Morison knowing they were only a small training operation and would be able to give the horse the individual care she probably needed.
The Ebbetts only have an owner/trainer licence and so they have taken out an 80 per cent lease in the horse with Morison and the other three men leasing the other 20 per cent between them.
Penny Ebbett said that when Pincanto first arrived on their property all she wanted to do was go too hard in her work and she and Tony have spent a lot of time just trying to calm her down.
"We lease a big paddock which is about 17 acres [6.8ha] and we do a lot of nice slow work on her around there and that has definitely helped," she said.
Pincanto showed a glimpse of her ability when winning a 1000m jumpout at Hastings last month. The Ebbetts were then pleased with her first up fifth from their stable over 1200m at Hastings on November 12, considering she had missed a week's work beforehand.
Apprentice jockey Albert Chan was aboard Pincanto at Awapuni last Saturday and Penny Ebbett said the instructions were not to lead but to take up a handy position, get a bit of cover and don't go too wide.
Chan followed the instructions to the letter, settling Pincanto in third place until the home turn before lodging a claim early in the home straight. The mare showed a great turn of foot to accelerate away from her rivals and win by 1-3/4 lengths.
Chan was also aboard Royal Ruby in the last race at the meeting and followed similar instructions. Another success looked likely when they were in front inside the last 200m but they were collared in the last couple of strides by The Rippa.
Both Pincanto and Royal Ruby are expected to race next on their home track at Waipukurau on December 10, where Pincanto will contest a Rating 65 race over 1200m and Royal Ruby will run in a Rating 65 event over 1600m.
Northern trip planned
A trials win at Foxton last week has group two Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m) winner Hard Merchandize on target for a northern test next week.
Freshened since finishing a game third in the group two Sarten Memorial Stakes (1400m) at Te Rapa last month, Hard Merchandize contested an open 1000m Foxton trial and scored a long neck win.
"It was a nice trial, a run just to keep him ticking over," his Awapuni trainer Gary Vile said.
"He had a week in the paddock after the Sarten Memorial and needed a nice hit-out.
"The plan is to take him north next start for the Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie to give him a look right-handed. He's had no problem working right-handed but I just want him to have that raceday experience."
The group three Hynds Holding Bonecrusher Stakes (1400m) will be run tomorrow week and Vile feels the timing is right for Hard Merchandize.
"The main aim is the $1 million Karaka 3-year-old race in January and I'm just working out a path to get there," Vile said.
Waipukurau races
The Waipukurau Jockey Club will stage its annual Christmas race meeting at the Waipukurau racecourse on Sunday, December 10.
Eight races have been programmed at this stage with the first starting at 1pm and the last timed for 5.05pm.
It will be country racing at its finest and in a festive atmosphere, with live entertainment, Fashion in the Field, childrens' entertainment and up-close thoroughbred racing.
The gates will be open at 11.30am and there will be a $10 gate charge.
Racing annual on sale
The book that has served as a Christmas treat for generations of racing fans Is available again.
The 2017 New Zealand Racing Annual is the 46th successive review of the racing year.
The hard-cover publication covers the key performers, both equine and human, in the 2016-17 season. Many of the high points were provided by a vintage crop of 3-year-olds, headed by Bonneval, Gingernuts and Jon Snow, who matched the best of their generation on both sides of the Tasman.
The annual will be available in some bookshops and can be purchased online at https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/m4kABacDg5RiD?domain=racingannual.co.nz
