“She has had problems with her feet ever since we got her and it has only been good farrier work that has kept them right,” Brown said.
“She is still scratchy in her action when she first goes out to work and makes this breathing noise before the start of a race but is okay once she gets going.
“It seems to be a nervous thing and just one of many things we have to sort out with her.”
To keep her settled and breathing properly Fancy Like Lass carries plenty of gear in her races including pre-race ear-covers, approved racing plates, boots, a nasal strip and a tongue-tie.
When she first started racing she used to run on nervous energy, trying to lead at all costs. She bounced straight to the front and led all the way when winning her maiden race over 1200m on the first day of this year’s Hawke’s Bay spring carnival and led for the last 400m in her second win, over 1200m at Otaki last month.
But Hercock got her to settle fourth in the running at Trentham last Saturday and waited until well into the home straight before asking the mare to fully extend.
Fancy Like Lass drove to the front halfway up the straight and kept up a strong run, under a hands and heels ride, to hold out the fast-finishing Prioress.
Besides her three victories, Fancy Like Lass has also recorded three seconds and has now won more than $82,000 in stake money.
Brown said this week he is unsure where the mare will start next, saying they are now weighing up their options.
He said they have nominated her for the Group 1 $450,000 Telegraph Sprint (1200m) at Trentham on January 13 but that race is now run under weight-for-age conditions which would probably put her at a disadvantage.
“We will have to talk it over with her owner but there are plenty of other good sprint races for her,” Brown said.
Fancy Like Lass is out of the Choisir mare Mandalong Belle, who recorded a win, two seconds and a third from only 14 starts in Australia.
Bedtime Story puts rivals to bed
The patient policy being adopted with Bedtime Story by the Hastings training partnership of Guy Lowry and Leah Zydenbos is certainly paying dividends.
The Per Incanto filly was having just her third start and her first race for more than a month when she stepped out in a $40,000 three-year-old race over 1200m at Trentham last Saturday and could not have been more impressive when winning by 1-1/2 lengths.
Bedtime Story finished second in her race debut over 1200m at Woodville in October, going down by just half a neck. She then had her second start a month later, winning a three-year-old maiden race over 1200m at Hastings on November 19 by 1-3/4 lengths.
Kosi Asano rode the filly to win that day and was again aboard at Trentham last Saturday.
He allowed the filly to settle comfortably in the trail behind the pacemaking Party Rocking and angled her into a gap between the leader and Bella Corno early in the home straight.
Bedtime Story accelerated quickly through the gap and dashed clear in the final stages.
For Zydenbos, who entered into a training partnership with Lowry at the beginning of this month, it was her second success after Candle carried the stable’s racing colours to victory at Hastings on December 13.
She was thrilled to see Bedtime Story perform so well against more experienced rivals, saying it had always been a plan to give the filly a trip to Trentham and have a go on the straight run there.
Lowry and Zydenbos will continue to play the patient game with Bedtime Story as they think she will get better as she gets older.
“She’s a little bit immature both physically, and still learning the game mentally, so we think as a four and five-year-old will be her go,” Zydenbos said.
Bedtime Story races in the colours of her breeder Henrietta Duchess Of Bedford, who owns her in partnership with a group that includes Hawke’s Bay couple David and Jan Henderson, Hawke’s Bay Racing Board member Tim Gillespie and the estate of the late Colin Bremner, who was a former president of the Waipukurau Jockey Club.
The filly is out of the unraced Tavistock mare Happy Endings, who is a daughter of the former high-class race mare Snap.
Snap was the winner of 11 races including Group 1 victories in the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m), New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Waikato Draught Sprint (1400m) and was the joint top three-year-old filly of her year.
Bedtime Story’s win last Saturday was the start of a great day for Hastings trainer Guy Lowry as he is also a part-owner of Waihaha Falls, who took out a $174,000 race at Randwick in Sydney later in the day.
Lowry races Waihaha Falls in partnership with Gary and Mark Chittick, from Waikato Stud, and the trio bred the six-year-old Sacred Falls gelding out of the Scaredee Cat mare Mink.
Waihaha Falls started out in Lowry’s Hastings stable and won a Foxton 1000m trial in October 2020 before being transferred to the Randwick stable of John O’Shea. He has now won five races and been stakes placed in Australia.
Snellen shows touch of class
One of the most impressive winners at the Otaki meeting on December 21 was Snellen, a three-year-old trained by Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard and bred and owned by Hawke’s Bay’s Noel Nicholson.
The Time Test gelding drew the outside barrier in a 1600m maiden race but jumped brilliantly and quickly got across to sit outside the leader to the home turn.
Jockey Michael McNab kicked him clear rounding the bend and he raced right away from the opposition to score by 2-1/4 lengths.
It was the horse’s second start and followed a good debut second over 1400m at Trentham last month.
Snellen is out of the unraced High Chaparral mare Perfect Vision and is a half-brother to the six-race winner Far Site (by Makfi) and a full-sister to another winner in Perfect Test.
Deserved Group 1 success
Campionessa shed her Group 1 bridesmaid’s tag in style at Pukekohe on Boxing Day with a well-deserved victory in the $450,000 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic.
Previously runner-up in both the Group 1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) and Group 1 Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes (2050m) earlier this year, Campionessa confirmed she is back to her best with a game-neck win in the 2050m feature.
The Contributor mare, who is now the winner of 10 races from 27 starts, was out of sorts when first brought back in the spring so she was put aside by trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson and brought back for summer racing.
That decision has proven to be a masterstroke as the six-year-old has now won her last three starts, starting with the Group 2 Auckland Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1400m) at Pukekohe last month before winning the Group 2 Cal Isuzu Stakes (1600m) at Te Rapa on December 16.
She was duly sent out a $3 favourite for Tuesday’s Zabeel Classic and, aided by a great ride from Opie Bosson, she triumphed again.
After jumping away well from an inside draw, Bosson was able to settle the mare behind the pacemaker Kelly Coe and enjoyed an economical run throughout.
Entering the straight, Bosson had to fight for room but managed to find a passage and Campionessa quickly lodged a challenge for the lead.
Sydney raider No Compromise was full of momentum and loomed as the likely winner at the 200m, but Campionessa fought back to gain the ascendancy close to the line.
Campionessa will now likely try to avenge her defeats in the Herbie Dyke Stakes and Bonecrusher New Zealand Stakes over the next couple of months and her connections are also considering sending her across the Tasman to join Te Akau Racing’s Cranbourne stable.
Bred by Mapperley Stud principal Simms Davison, Campionessa was originally passed in at the 2019 Karaka yearling sales after failing to meet her $70,000 reserve.
She was again passed in at the Magic Millions sale in June, but a deal was struck with Te Akau principal David Ellis for A$60,000, with Davison remaining in the ownership group.
The mare is raced by the Te Akau Campionessa Syndicate, with Waipukurau’s Michael Ormsby also being a small shareholder.
She credited her sire Contributor with his second Group 1 winner, joining Lion’s Roar who was victorious in the 2021 Randwick Guineas (1600m).
