Callsign Mav and jockey Jonathan Riddell after winning the Windsor Park Plate at Hastings in 2021. They'll reunite for the first time since, in the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings on Saturday. Photo / NZME
Callsign Mav and jockey Jonathan Riddell after winning the Windsor Park Plate at Hastings in 2021. They'll reunite for the first time since, in the Tarzino Trophy at Hastings on Saturday. Photo / NZME
A Hastings race track champion that had three major race wins at the Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival in 2020 and 2021 will be back again to have another go on the 2023 festival’s first day on Saturday.
Trained by leading Hawke’s Bay trainer John Bary, Callsign Mav won the 1400-metres, weight-for-age $200,000 Tarzino Trophy race in 2020, at odds of better than 80-1, and repeated the win at the 2021 carnival, as well as claiming the 1600m Windsor Park Plate on the second day of that carnival, when both races had stakes of $220,000.
The races, now worth $400,000 each, are the first two legs of the Colliers Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival’s Triple Crown, which kicks off the racing industry’s Grand Tour of 20 major racedays throughout the country from September to April.
The sequence of wins in the major race on each day of the carnival in one year has been achieved just once, by five-year-old Melody Belle in 2019, when the mare completed the treble with victory in the 2060m Livamol Classic on the last day.
Callsign Mav headed for Australia to tackle such races as the 2060m Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, with stakemoney totalling more than $5 million, and while not successful in the big race did win almost $800,000 last season.
It included $668,521 (A$600,000) for winning the 1400m Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield in September last year, its last of eight wins in a career of 31 starts over five seasons, with total stake earnings of almost $1.6m.
Hastings trainer John Bary at the races in Hastings five years ago. He has two starters in the $400,000 Tarzino Trophy race on the course on Saturday. Photo / NZME
Other than three recent trials, he hasn’t raced since finishing last in the 10-horse Victoria Handicap field at Caulfield in April, but was on Wednesday named in the field for Saturday’s race.
The barrier draw has not gone well for Callsign Mav, at 15, but it’s the opposite for the second John Bary runner, Spring Tide, another 7-year-old who was second in the race last year from the No 2 draw, and this year drawing No 1.
Both are among six with the top weight of 59kg allocated to stallions or geldings aged 5 years or older, in a field including the favourite and Australian Guineas winner Legarto, 2022 Hawke’s Bay Guineas winner Pier, and Melbourne Cup hopeful and New Zealand Derby winner Sharp ‘n’ Smart.
There are 10 races at Hastings on Saturday, with stakes raised to a minimum of $65,000. The first is at midday, the Westbury Park Stud Tarzino Trophy, with the stakes raised to $400,000 and starting at 4.35pm, while the last is at 5.08pm.
The card also features the historic 3-year-old fillies race, the Gold Trail Stakes ($120,000) and the Sir Colin Meads Trophy race at $90,000, bringing the total stakes for the day to $1,065,000.
The day doubles as the Daffodil Day Cancer Foundation fundraiser, with special Daffodil Day silks worn by the jockeys of one horse in each race, with the TAB donating $2000 to the cause for each one that wins, or $5000 if Legarto wins under the silks in the Tarzino Trophy race.
Te Akau Racing will be donating $500 for every race won by a horse trained by their trainers, Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson.
The day, and the rest of the Spring Racing Carnival, will again have Colliers Hawke’s Bay as its title sponsor.
The Westbury Stud Tarzino Trophy field (with trainers and their locations, and jockeys, in brackets) and TAB win odds: 1 Callsign Mav (Tr: J Bary, Hastings; J: Jonathan Riddell) $31; 2 Dragon Leap (Tr: O’Sullivan/Scott, Matamata; J: Joe Doyle) $7; 3 Brando (Tr: Waker/Bergerson, Matamata; J: Johnathan Parkes) $26; 4 He’s a Doozy (Tr: L Latta, Awapuni; J: Kozzi Asano) $26; 5 Gospodin (Tr: J Pender, Tauranga; J: TBA) $61; 6: Spring Tide (Tr: J Bary, Hastings; J: Joe Kamaruddin) $41; 7 Sharp ‘n’ Smart (Tr: Team Rogerson, Tuhikaramea; J: Michael McNabb) $7; 8 Pier (Tr: D&B Weatherley, Matamata; J: Sam Weatherley) $14; 9 La Crique (Tr: S&K Alexander, Matamata; J: Craig Grylls) $4.40; 10 Belclare (Tr: L Latta, Awapuni; J: Sam Spratt) $12; 11 Aromatic (Tr: Walker/Bergerson, Matamata; J: Warren Kennedy) $41; 12 Malt Time (Tr: S&E Clotworthy, Waiau Pa; J: Vinnie Colgan) $51; 13 Legarto (Tr: K&B Kelso, Matamata; J: Ryan Elliot) $3.60; 14 Pennyweka (Tr: J Wallace, Ōpaki; J: Kate Hercock) $31; 15 Lickety Split (Tr: A Forsman, Cambridge); J: Lisa Allpress) $18; 16 Skew Wiff (Tr: Walker/Bergerson; J: Opie Bosson) $10; 17 (balloted out with right of re-entry) Mali Ston (Tr: D&B Weatherley, Matamata; J: Troy Harris) $41.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
