HORSE RACING - Great response at Ruakaka

The Whangarei Racing Club's second meet of the winter on June 20 faced our first real winter weather but the supporters turned up and enjoyed great racing in more testing conditions for the horses and jockeys.
Five local wins including the main race kept everyone's spirits up, except the Logan/Gibbs stable who we now know were weighed down with the tragic news of Ring of Fire's demise in Brisbane earlier the same day.
The highlight of the day was the running of the Storm Creek two-year-old 1200m race, the second in the $100,000 Stoney Bridge Triple Crown Bonus Series.
The Mooseisloose (trained by the Logan/Gibbs partnership) came out on top and this character of a horse, who had to be restrained by the Clerk of the Course to ensure he did not bolt for home after the race, looks set to make a game bid for the final leg of the Triple Crown - the Oceanz Seafood Northland Breeders Stakes.
This race run at our feature meeting on Saturday, July 14, is a listed race with stakes of $60,000.
We have heard that many of the top two-year-olds around the North Island have been aiming for this race so we expect a top quality field to be nominated.
Strongly rumoured to be riding at this race meeting are the controversial leading NZ jockey Lisa Cropp and top Queensland jockey Stathi Katsidis.
One of the local wins last week was by Keynassue trained by Ruakaka's Alan Johnson.
This four-year-old mare is raced by the BBC Syndicate - a group of 10 from the Bream Bay Club in Ruakaka.
They were on course in force and very happy with the generous $13.90 dividend Keynassue paid for the win on the tote.
The mare has finished in the money six times out of her 20 starts and the syndicate is committed to the horse who in return is providing them a lot of fun.
"We are confident she can win more races.
"The horse is a handful to train and Alan does a great job with her," said Brian (BJ) Smith, manager of the Bream Bay Club and of the syndicate. They plan to start Keynassue at Ruakaka again on July 14.
Track work:
(No.1 grass track easy)
The Quipster worked strongly over 1400m. The last 1000m in 1:07, last 600m in 37.5.
Bold Trader did two rounds of pace work on the sand and is very fit.
Yet Anuthahorse and Cha Cha Char worked nicely twice around on the sand track. Both of these horses have benefited from racing last week.
After Shock did strong work on the sand track and is very fit for his upcoming racing.
El Perez worked twice round on sand. He has benefited from an exhibition gallop last Wednesday and is very forward to resume racing.
Watch for The Quipster racing at Avondale (race 9) on Saturday.