Jockey Kate Hercock gets the promising Zambezi Khan up in the last few strides to snatch victory in the 1000m two-year-old race at Tauherenikau on Monday. Photo / Supplied
Jockey Kate Hercock gets the promising Zambezi Khan up in the last few strides to snatch victory in the 1000m two-year-old race at Tauherenikau on Monday. Photo / Supplied
Hastings trainer Guy Lowry’s deliberate plan to keep a low profile with his team of horses during the unseasonal wet spring and early summer is now starting to pay dividends.
Lowry, who has more than 25 horses in work, went several weeks without having a runner in the early spring as he did not want to put pressure on his team in testing track conditions.
It meant that most of the horses in his stable were behind in their preparations but they are now starting to reach their peak, with the stable producing four individual winners in the past fortnight.
Can I Get An Amen started the ball rolling when winning a Rating 87 race over 1200m at Otaki on December 26.
Four days later Pipers Fling scored a deserved maiden win over 1100m at Taupo and a day later Lowry got Love Letter to turn her form around and take out a Rating 65 race over 1600m on her home track.
The Lowry stable then took two horses to last Monday’s Tauherenikau meeting and came away with an impressive win by Zambezi Khan and a fourth with Speakeasy.
“It’s great the way things are going now but it has taken a while for the horses to come up because of all that wet weather,” Lowry said.
There was no more impressive winner at last Monday’s Tauherenikau meeting than Zambezi Khan, who overcame traffic problems to take out a 1000m two-year-old race.
The Mongolian Khan filly was making her race debut, after a trial win over 850m at Foxton on December 20, and looked likely to only fill a minor place at best when fourth out of the five runners rounding the home bend.
The filly was then knocked off-stride and jockey Kate Hercock had to extricate her from behind the leaders and get her balanced up again to mount a run.
Zambezi Khan was giving the leaders a good head start inside the final 200m but showed amazing acceleration to get up and win by a neck.
Zambezi Khan is owned by Taradale couple Mark Evans and Lynette Hammington in partnership with their good friends Thomas and Julie Cowan, who live on the Gold Coast of Australia.
Evans bought the daughter of Mongolian Khan for $5000 when she was offered as a yearling on Gavelhouse in August 2021.
“She is out of a Makfi mare called Zafiki who is a horse that I followed when we lived in Australia,” Mark Evans recalled this week.
“She was a pretty smart filly who won two races from only eight starts.
“She won first up over 1600m at Cranbourne and then again over 1800m on the Gold Coast.”
Evans said he and his partners have always thought that Zambezi Khan had plenty of ability but the way she won on debut even surprised him.
He said Lowry now intends giving the filly another run before setting her for the Group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) in late March.
The main benefactor from the great run of form Guy Lowry’s stable has enjoyed in the past fortnight is Cambridge-based Tony Rider.
The supermarket owner has been one of Lowry’s most loyal clients since he began training and regularly has several horses in work in his stable.
Rider co-bred and owns Can I Get An Amen with a group of close friends from Auckland. He also bred and owns Pipers Fling on his own and is the part-owner of Love Letter.
First quinella for Wilson
Waipukurau’s Simon Wilson recorded a personal first when he produced the winning quinella in a Rating 65 race at Tauherenikau on Monday.
Wilson saddled up Scutar, who led all the way in the 2050m event, and he also had Vidiano in the race and she finished a game second.
Wilson holds an owner-trainer licence and subsequently only prepares a very small team. He rarely lines up two horses in the same race and so to get a quinella gave him a great buzz, especially as he has a 50 per cent racing share in both horses.
Scutar was recording his third win from 20 starts and has also chalked up four seconds and two thirds.
Apprentice jockey Faye Lazet bounced the O’Reilly gelding out quickly from the number one barrier to take a clear lead in the early running and the seven-year-old maintained a strong gallop in front all the way.
Waipukurau trainer Simon Wilson leads Scutar away following the horse’s success in the Rating 65 race over 2050m at Tauherenikau on Monday. Photo / Supplied
Stablemate Vidiano went up to challenge for the lead rounding the home bend but Scutar still had something in reserve and surged clear again in the final stages to win by 1-1/4 lengths. Vidiano held on for second by a long neck from Sir Beets.
Wilson said he is unsure where Scutar will line up next as he likes to space the horse’s races as much as he can.
“We’ll see how he gets over this race before making any plans but there might be another one for him at the end of the month,” Wilson said.
Vidiano has only been in Wilson’s care since the start of this season after doing all her previous racing in Australia, where she recorded a win and three minor placings from eight starts.
The Pierro mare has now chalked up two seconds from four starts for Wilson.
“She’s pretty honest and tries hard,” Wilson said.
“She’s taken a bit of sorting out but she’s getting there.”
Free Bee on top again
Underrated Hastings-trained mare Free Bee stunned punters again when winning at double-figure odds at the Hawke’s Bay meeting on December 31.
The Rageese mare, trained by Mick Brown and Sue Thompson, recorded her second win when she out-toughed her rivals in a Rating 75 race over 1400m.
The mare was on the quick back-up after finishing third over 1200m at Woodville four days before and that run followed a win over 1200m at Hastings on December 7, where she returned a win dividend of $41.70.
Promising northern apprentice Tayla Mitchell is fast building a good association with Free Bee. She has been aboard the mare in her last two wins and produced almost identical rides on both occasions.
Mitchell was quick to take up a prominent position on Free Bee last Saturday and had her trailing the pacemaker No Time To Jazz to the home turn. She then took her mount to the front and, despite being challenged in the final stages, the mare managed to stave them off to win by a neck.
Free Bee is owned by well-known Hawke’s Bay racing identity Lucy Scoular who races the mare in partnership with her son Andy, her daughter Sally Toothill and the estate of her late husband John, who passed away a few months ago.
The mare is out of the Volksraad mare Bizz and descends from a family that the Scoulars have enjoyed good success with over many years.
Hastings thoroughbred owner-breeder Chris Russell celebrated a success on Australian soil on Tuesday when Makbeel scored a runaway 5-1/4 length win in a A$27,000 maiden race over 1600m at Stoney Creek, Victoria.
Russell bred the Makfi five-year-old gelding and the horse races in his distinctive black and white colours.
Makbeel was having only his seventh start. He recorded two third placings in New Zealand, when trained by John Bary, before being transferred to the Australian stable of Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young.
He managed one fourth placing from four starts for Busuttin and Young and is now prepared by Dean Krongold at Mornington.
Makbeel is out of the Zabeel mare Donna Beel, who won one race from only six starts. She is now deceased with Makbeel being her only progeny to race.
Hastings-trained filly Best Seller showed she is right on target for the $30,000 three-year-old race at Trentham with a good solo exhibition gallop between races at Hastings on December 31.
The daughter of Wrote, trained by John Bary, worked in from the 1000m peg on the course proper in 60.58, running the first 400m in a tick over 26s before coming home the last 600 in 34.51s.
It was an excellent workout by the filly, who looked to have plenty in reserve at the finish.
Best Seller hasn’t raced since finishing second behind the highly rated Legarto in the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 14. Before that she had finished sixth in the Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) and three starts back she was successful in the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) on the Hastings track.
She has drawn well at barrier three in today’s 1200m race and will again be ridden by Sam Spratt, who has been aboard the filly in her last four starts.
