Eyegeegee gets up on the outside of Radiant Lass to snatch a last-stride win in a 1200m maiden race at Hastings on Thursday last week.
The race for this year’s leading Hawke’s Bay trainer on wins has come down to the wire and could be decided at today’s Taumarunui meeting at Te Rapa, on the final day of the racing season.
Guy Lowry and the partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal are locked on 18 wins each but only the latter combination has a chance of adding to the tally.
Lowry said this week said he was stuck on 18 wins because he would not have any horses racing again until the new season.
On the other hand, the Nelson/McDougal stable will have two top chances in the main jumping races at Te Rapa today, in Taika and Raucous.
Taika, an impressive last-start hurdle winner at Hastings on July 1, will contest the $30,000 Stewart Browne Memorial Hurdle (3200m) while Raucous, who scored a decisive last-start win over the big fences at Te Rapa, will line up in the $30,000 Woods Contracting Steeplechase (3900m). In-form Irish jockey Jack Power will again ride both horses and is eligible to claim a 3kg allowance.
Taika and Raucous both showed they have thrived since their last starts with strong workouts at Tuesday’s Hastings trackwork session.
Both the Lowry and the Nelson/McDougal combination had winners at the last Hawke’s Bay meeting of the season, on Thursday last week. As did another Hastings trainer, John Bary, who took his season tally to 15.
Lowry produced impressive debutant Eyegeegee for a last-start stride success in a maiden 1200m race while Nelson and McDougal saddled up Rhodesian for a runaway victory in a maiden 1650m event.
Eyegeegee looked a horse with a bright future when he downed a field of more- experienced runners, assisted by a great ride from jockey Craig Grylls.
The big Time Test three-year-old was a bit keen in the early stages but Grylls got him to settle fifth before asking him to improve coming to the home turn.
Radiant Lass had led from the start and tried to put a winning break on the field rounding the home turn. But Eyegeegee quickly loomed up out wide and, after taking a while to get properly balanced, he put in some giant strides late to get up and snatch a half-head win.
The race resulted in a Hawke’s Bay-trained trifecta with second-placed Radiant Lass coming from the John Bary stable and third placegetter Checkpoint Charlie prepared by Mick Brown and Sue Thompson.
Eyegeegee is owned by Masterton’s Little Avondale Stud and is bred to be good, being out of the Savabeel mare Savamour. He is a half-brother to Belluci Babe, who is a Gr.3 winner of six races in Australia. He is also a half-brother to Garoppolo and Maximus Mak, both of whom won three races across the Tasman.
Eyegeegee’s grandam is the Sound Reason mare Sound Lover, who had 18 starts for five wins and three seconds and was a Gr.3 winner over 1600m at Ellerslie.
Paul Nelson, who co-trains Rhodesian, thought the five-year-old Rip Van Winkle would go well in last week’s 1650m race but was pleasantly surprised when he raced away for a five-length win.
Nelson said he thought the Redwood gelding went a good race when he finished fifth at Otaki two starts back, in May, and then he had one more run over 2100m at Hastings before a brief freshen-up.
The gelding indicated he was ready for a big performance last week by turning in a strong workout in company on the Hastings track the previous Tuesday, when he ran his last 600m in 37s.
Rhodesian is out of the Zabeel mare Laebeel and started out in the Matamata stable of Pam Gerard and Mike Moroney, before being transferred to Nelson and McDougal in April this year.
Nelson said he was yet to meet the horse’s Waikato owner, Ray Batten, who races the horse in partnership with his wife.
“He was sent down to be tried as a jumper and he’s now had three starts for us,” Nelson said.
“He is a half-brother to Laekeeper and he was a pretty good jumper.”
Laekeeper was the winner of eight races, six of them over hurdles including the Pakuranga Hunt Hurdle at Ellerslie.
Nelson said he was unsure where Rhodesian will race next, saying there was a lack of suitable rating 65 staying races on grass tracks in the next month.
Two Hastings men, Lester Drake and Neville Jackson, celebrated their biggest racing success last Saturday night when a pacer they share in, Swayzee, led all the way in the Gr.1 A$400,000 Blakes A Fake Classic at Albion Park in Queensland.
The five-year-old gelding upstaged his year younger half-brother, local pin-up pacer Leap To Fame, when scoring a 3¼-length win in the 2680m feature.
Drake and Jackson are part of a quartet of owners that races Swayzee from the Victorian stable of Jason Grimson, and the horse has now won 16 races.
Swayzee was initially purchased as a young horse by New Zealand trainer Tim Butt, who offered Drake and Jackson a share.
“We’ve been in right from the ground floor and it’s been a great ride,” Drake said this week.
“Tim Butt won 10 races with him and then Jason Grimson took him over and he has had six starts with him for six wins.
“He won a Gr.3 race two starts back and then a Gr.1 last Saturday. It was a great thrill.”
The Blakes A Fake Classic is one of the races in Australian pacing’s Grand Circuit, the two remaining legs being the A$300,000 Gr.1 Victoria Cup at Melton on October 14 and the A$500,000 Inter Dominion Pacing Final at Albion Park on December 16.
Swayzee is now being set for the Gr.1 NZ Cup (3200m) in Christchurch on November 14, but Grimson said he would also consider both the Victoria Cup and Inter Dominion with the horse.
“We’ll get through this win and look at what we target for the rest of the year, but the NZ Cup is a definite because he’s such a great stayer.”
Swayzee was driven in dashing and daring style in front by NSW young gun Cam Hart, who also won last year’s Blacks A Fake aboard the Grimson-trained Majestic Cruiser.
Hart was lavish in his praise for Swayzee after the win.
“He’s potentially as good as any of the nice ones I’ve driven,” he said. “He’s just a beast in front or up on the speed. I don’t think anything will beat him in front and even if he’s got to sit parked, he’ll be very hard to beat.
“He’s just so strong and loves rolling along in quick time, which was always our plan tonight.
“He’s a great stayer and Jason and I knew we had to turn the race into a real staying test.
Four-year-old Leap To Fame lost no admirers at his first Grand Circuit start, finishing just 6.2m behind his older half-brother after sitting parked throughout.
The Grand Dixon-trained star also suffered a flat tyre at the 300m when the tube wrapped around the left-side sulky wheel and basically seized it.
Rhys Mildon has been Stephen Marsh’s lieutenant over the past few years and has been rewarded for his loyalty with a recent promotion to assistant trainer for Cambridge’s leading stable.
“He is the major cog in the wheel and is a massive part of the team. He is the overseer of two of the stable barns,” Marsh said.
Mildon has been part of the Marsh stable for the best part of 15 years and says he has enjoyed his time working there.
“Stephen is the best boss I have had, that is why I have stayed here so long. He is so laid back and easy-going,” Mildon said.
Mildon brings with him a wealth of international experience, having spent time working in both Australia and England.
“I started out at Cambridge Stud where I spent two seasons before Marcus Corban sent me to Lindsay Park in Australia to work,” he said.
“It was an awesome opportunity and I was there for four or five years under Tony McEvoy and then David Hayes.
“I then went to England for a year and a half before I came home to New Zealand for the summer and started working for Stephen part-time and really enjoyed it.
“The foreman at the time was just leaving, so I took his position.”
The stable has grown to have a presence in both islands, with Mildon charged with heading down to Christchurch on a regular basis to oversee their Riccarton barn.
During his time at Marsh Racing, Mildon enjoyed plenty of success racing a number of his own horses from the stable.
“I have been very lucky. Are You Devious and Belle Fascino are the two best I have raced,” he said.
Belle Fascino won two Gr.3 races and two listed events. “She literally put a roof over my head.”
“At the moment I have got shares in Winning For All, who is a progressive, nice horse.”
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