Matello (centre) clears the last fence slightly ahead of Invisible Spirit on his way to winning a 2500m maiden hurdle race at Trentham last Saturday.
Hawke’s Bay’s Lucy de Lautour celebrated her second-biggest day as a thoroughbred owner-trainer with a winning double at Trentham last Saturday.
De Lautour produced the winners of both maiden hurdle races at the Wellington meeting, Metallo and Ian’s Legacy, the first time she has won two races on the same day.
Her biggest success as a trainer still remains taking out the 2017 running of the $50,000 Te Whangai Romney Hawke’s Bay Hurdles with Kipkeino, a horse she produced to win 10 races and more than $227,000 in stakes.
Last Saturday’s winning double was not only extra-special for the de Lautour family but tinged with sadness. Both horses are raced by Lucy and her husband Will and Will’s mother, Shona, had died the previous Tuesday, with her funeral held just two days before the Trentham race meeting.
Lucy said Shona, who was 86, had a passion for all horses and took a keen interest in those raced by the family.
“She loved watching racing and I’m sure she would have been looking down from somewhere and been very happy,” Lucy said this week.
Lucy has three horses in work and had them all racing at Trentham last Saturday. Metallo and Ian’s Legacy both won $20,000 races over 2500m while the third member of the team, Donardo, finished a gallant fourth in the $75,000 Wellington Steeplechase (5500m).
“It was a great day. Both horses that won had been going well and you just hope that things work out on the day and they did,” she said.
“When you only have three horses in work any win is extraordinary, but to get two in one day is pretty unbelievable.”
Lucy took out an owner-trainer’s licence just over a decade ago, after she and Will shifted from Nuhaka to take over their present farm in Waipukurau.
Her first foray into training thoroughbreds came after she and Will bought Kipkeino as an unraced two-year-old at a Christchurch mixed bloodstock sale for $5500 and the Sunray gelding won at his second start, as a four-year-old, in a 1600m maiden highweight at Awapuni.
Kipkeino went on to record 10 wins, eight seconds and 11 thirds, with his minor placings including a second in the 2019 Wellington Steeplechase and thirds in both the Wellington Hurdle and Great Northern Hurdle. He is now one of several horses the de Lautours use for hunting.
“He [Kipkeino] is in his second season of hunting and is amazing at it. He’s 15 years old now but still as agile as ever,” de Lautour added.
Her two winners last Saturday, Metallo and Ian’s Legacy, were both bought as tried horses on the flat but with no experience as jumpers.
“We bought Metallo in a private sale from another trainer, Fraser Auret, and sent him to Kevin Myers for a time where he did a fair bit of schooling, which was much appreciated.”
The Zoffany six-year-old was having only his second hurdle start last Saturday, following a debut fourth at Hastings on July 1, and completed a winning double for Irish-born jockey Jack Power, who also took out the maiden steeplechase aboard Password.
Power rode the perfect race on Metallo, settling the horse nicely behind the leading division and sticking to the inside to save every inch of ground.
Metallo went up to challenge the leader Invisible Spirit rounding the home turn and the two horses went neck to neck over the final stages before Metallo edged clear close to the line to win by three-quarters of a length.
The de Lautours bought Ian’s Legacy for $1500 from Gavelhouse in 2020, and the Rip Van Winkle seven-year-old has now had four hurdle starts for a win, two seconds and a fourth.
He was steered to victory last Saturday by Portia Matthews, who also rode a patient race, settling the grey at the back of the field in the early stages before improving her position to challenge the leaders coming to the home turn.
Lord Spencer held a slender lead jumping the last two fences but Ian’s Legacy, with Matthews hugging the inside running, closed quickly and gradually wore the leader down in the run to the line to score by 1¾ lengths.
Lucy said she had no immediate plans for Metallo and Ian’s Legacy, saying there is now a shortage of jumping races in the North Island for the rest of the winter.
She said it was unlikely she would take any of her horses south for next month’s Grand National meeting at Christchurch.
Lucy and Will also got to celebrate another success at Trentham last Saturday because they are part of the 60-strong I See Red Syndicate that races Suliman, winner of the $75,000 Wellington Hurdle (3400m).
The Hastings training partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal chalked up their fourth consecutive Wellington Hurdle success when Suliman took out last Saturday’s $75,000 3400m feature at Trentham.
Paul Nelson has been one of the country’s best conditioners of jumpers for many years and has won the Wellington Hurdle six times, the first two when training on his own. His first victory in the race was with Solid Steel in 2010, while he also saddled up The Shackler to take out the event in 2017.
McDougal joined forces with Nelson in May 2019 and, two months later, they produced No Tip to win the Wellington Hurdle.
The race was not run in 2020 due to Covid restrictions and the stable has taken out the last three runnings with The Cossack (2021), Nedwin (last year) and now Suliman.
The Nelson/McDougal stable had two representatives in last Saturday’s race, with hot favourite Nedwin expected to record back-to-back wins in the hands of Irish-born jockey Jack Power. However, after disputing the pace, the Niagara eight-year-old hit the top of the fence with 1000m to run and fell.
With the favourite out of contention, Berry The Cash was the leader coming to the home turn, with Suliman closing in.
Then Berry The Cash also fell after misjudging the third-to-last fence, leaving Suliman clear in front. The nine-year-old had to safely negotiate only the last two fences to claim victory and, although he scrambled over the last jump, he had enough in reserve to win by 5½ lengths.
Suliman is raced by the I See Red Syndicate, a 60-member strong group of racing enthusiasts who have enjoyed a huge amount of success racing horses in the Nelson stable colours.
It was the syndicate’s second Wellington Hurdle win as they also raced the 2010 winner Solid Steel.
Suliman started his racing career with Matamata trainer Graham Richardson where he won five of his first 33 starts before transferring to Nelson and McDougal in 2021. He has now recorded a further five victories including the 2021 Taumarunui Gold Cup (2200m) and the 2023 Awapuni Hurdle (2800m) for prizemoney in excess of $262,000.
Suliman’s triumph provided the only high point for Nelson and McDougal in what was otherwise a disastrous day for the stable at Trentham last Saturday.
Nedwin fell in the Wellington Hurdle while his stablemate, Argyll, suffered a heart attack and died during the running of the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m).
The stable was also represented by the well-supported The Cossack in the Wellington Steeplechase, but he suffered severe interference trying to avoid the stricken Argyll as it fell.
The Cossack did remarkably well to recover and made up a lot of ground in the home straight to finish third behind West Coast and the tearaway pacemaker Izymydaad.
West Coast was ridden to victory by Hastings-born jumps jockey Shaun Fannin, who continued his great run of form after winning the Hawke’s Bay Hurdle-Steeplechase double at Hastings on July 1. It was his second Wellington Steeplechase success after he piloted Yardarm to win the race in 2021, when it was run at Hastings.
Nelson said this week his jumpers are unlikely to head to Christchurch for next month’s Grand National meeting and will instead be aimed at the Great Northern meeting, which has now had another venue change and will be staged at Te Rapa on Sunday, September 17.
Nystrom, a filly raced by several Hawke’s Bay people, scored a decisive maiden win on the Cambridge synthetic track on Thursday of last week.
The three-year-old Iffraaj filly followed up a fresh-up second over 1300m on the same track last month with a 1½-length victory over 1400m.
Nystrom is raced by a syndicate set up by Hawke’s Bay couple Richard and Jo Dee, with the other Hawke’s Bay members being Rob and Jean Mulcaster, Neil Common, Jamie and Lara Molloy and Wayne and Morag Robinson.
The Dees outlayed $95,000 to buy two yearling fillies for the syndicate at the 2021 Karaka yearling sales and both have been successful in the past month.
The first was Avaya, who won a 1300m maiden at Cambridge on the day Nystrom finished second.
Nystrom was ridden to victory last week by the country’s leading jockey, Michael McNab. He had the filly trailing the leader until the 600m before letting her roll to the front coming to the home turn and she kicked clear early in the straight.
Nystrom cost $50,000 to buy at the sales and is out of the Stratum mare Fast Grass, who had 10 race starts in Australia for two wins, two seconds and a third.
The filly’s grandam is the Zabeel mare Decibeel, who won six races in Australia.
There were 24,318 breath tests recorded in the region in just one month.