Jockey Shaun Fannin salutes the judge as he brings Happy Star back at the head of the field following their all-the-way win in the open hurdle race at Woodville last Sunday. They will team up again in today’s $70,000 Te Whangai Romneys Hawke’s Bay Hurdles.
Hastings-born jumps jockey Shaun Fannin is on a high after scoring a winning double at Woodville last Sunday and is hoping the run continues as he seeks a first success in both feature jumping races on his home track today.
Fannin, 27, who currently leads the national jumps jockeys’ premiership with 14 wins from 36 rides, continued his great association with Wanganui trainer Kevin Myers by combining to win both of the main jumps races at Woodville.
Fannin rode the Myers-trained Happy Star to an all-the-way win in the $30,000 Murray Contractors Hurdle and then steered stablemate Prince Turbo to a dominant victory in the $30,000 Woodville Service Centre Steeplechase.
The talented horseman has a total of 144 wins to his credit but says he has not had a lot of success on the Hastings track and is hoping things will change when he teams up again with Happy Star in the $70,000 Te Whangai Romneys Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m) and West Coast in the $70,000 AHD Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m).
They are the only two mounts he has taken at Saturday’s meeting as he is still not fully recovered from a shoulder injury he suffered in a race fall at Hastings on June 5.
“Hastings has not been a very good track for me. I’ve hardly ridden any winners there for some reason and it’s been a bit of a bogey place for me,” he said this week.
“To win a Hawke’s Bay Hurdles or a Hawke’s Bay Steeples would be pretty special and the two horses I’m riding will be the two best rides I’ve ever had in the races.”
Fannin’s best results in the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles have been third placings on Venerate in 2015, Sea King in 2017 and Tallyho Twinkletoe in 2021.
He has been aboard Happy Star in each of the seven-year-old gelding’s three hurdle wins, including the Grand National (4200m) at Riccarton in August last year, and they combined for a dominant 4-3/4 length victory in a 3000m hurdle open hurdle at Woodville last Sunday.
“He’s a pretty classy horse,” Fannin said.
“The extremely heavy track at Trentham two starts back didn’t really suit him but he was very impressive last Sunday.
“He won with a fair bit in hand and I’m pretty confident he will be hard to beat again this Saturday.”
Happy Star’s trainer Kevin Myers has a much better record in the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles, having won the race four times in the past with Rolls (1988), Fontera (2004), Zenocoin (2014) and Gagarin (2015).
Fannin’s record in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase is just as unimpressive. He has only recorded two third placings and they have been aboard Mesmerize two years ago and West Coast last year.
West Coast was a relatively inexperienced steeplechaser 12 months ago but now has a record of three wins, a second and a third from five starts over the big fences.
Fannin has also been the winning rider in each of West Coast’s three steeplechase victories, including the Grand National (5600m) in August last year.
“He is a very good jumper,” Fannin said.
“He won a maiden hurdle at Trentham two starts back and then had a run on the flat to get him ready for Saturday.
“I watched him work at the Awapuni track on Tuesday and he was outstanding.
“I think he’s a very good chance on Saturday.”
West Coast’s Awapuni trainer Mark Oulaghan certainly knows what it takes to get a horse to win the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase as he has triumphed in the time-honoured event four times in the past with Regal Time (1986), Deecee Seven (1996), Soberano (1997) and Yourtheman in 2010.
Fannin is the son of former Hastings trainer Jill Fannin (nee Martin) and started his riding career as an amateur jockey when based in Hastings. He then moved to the Kevin Myers stable in Wanganui and had his first jumps race ride in June 2014.
He is now combining race riding with a successful career as a trainer.
He presently has 18 horses in work and has saddled up nine winners from only 47 starters this season.
“Life is pretty full on and busy each day but I’ve got a good little team around me and that helps a lot,” Fannin added.
Well-bred fillies starting to excel
Hawke’s Bay couple Richard and Jo Dee outlayed $95,000 to buy two yearling fillies at the 2021 Karaka yearling sales and are now starting to reap the rewards.
The two horses are both now racing and called Avaya and Nystrom.
Avaya broke through for deserved maiden win over 1300m on the Cambridge synthetic track on June 14 after two close seconds from her previous five starts. She followed up her win with another good effort for fourth in a Rating 65 race over the same distance at Cambridge on Wednesday.
Nystrom recorded a second placing over 1550m on the Cambridge synthetic track back in February before being put aside for a spell. She resumed over 1300m at Cambridge on Wednesday and produced another good second placing.
The Dees have set up a large syndicate to race the two fillies, with several other Hawke’s Bay people among those involved.
They are Rob and Jean Mulcaster, Neil Common, Jamie and Lara Molloy and Wayne and Morag Robinson.
Richard Dee said he was attracted to Avaya leading up to the Karaka yearling sales as she was a daughter of the highly successful Australian stallion Zoustar and offered by Cambridge Stud.
“She was a very nice filly. I looked at a few yearlings at Cambridge Stud but most of them made too much money.
“I thought this one, being by Zoustar, would make more than she did but she only cost $45,000 to buy and the service fee for the sire the previous season was A$120,000.
Avaya is out of the Alamosa mare Special Bid, who recorded two wins and three minor placings from 19 starts.
Nystrom cost $50,000 to buy at the sales and is by Iffraaj 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.
Richard and Jo Dee are the parents of successful Australian jockey Michael Dee and operate a Hawke’s Bay farm owned by them and their son.
Hastings mare’s last hurrah
Hastings trainer Lee Somervell is hoping his game little mare One Dream One Soul can go out on a high when she contests today’s Listed $65,000 Tauranga Classic on her home track.
Somervell could hardly believe his luck when the 1400m weight-for-age feature was relocated to Hastings after heavy rain forced the abandonment of its original slot at Tauranga last weekend.
One Dream One Soul has often saved her best for her home turf where she has won twice and posted multiple placings, so the chance of black type couldn’t be ignored in what will be her last start this campaign.
“We thought about putting her in the Rating 75 race here and that would do her and now they’ve transferred the Classic ad it’s a lovely race for her and a good even field without being top class,” Somervell said.
“She’s not totally comfortable on a really heavy track. Having said that, she is fit and that will carry her a long way.
“If it’s loose, which I think it will be, she will handle that. She’s only a lightly framed horse, but she’s got a big heart and a big finish.
One Dream One Soul was originally heading to the spelling paddock following her most recent start, over the course and distance earlier this month, but the Ekraar mare had other ideas.
“We gave her four days out and she wasn’t having that, she just loves her work and is a delight to train as a four-year-old.
One Dream One Soul has won three races and posted a further nine minor placings, including a second in last season’s Group 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m) at Hastings, and Somervell believes the best is yet to come.
One Dream One Soul has a wide draw to overcome today and will be ridden by promising apprentice Jim Chung.
“You might wonder why we’ve put a 4kg claiming apprentice on, but there are only five flat races at the meeting and it was very hard to get a suitable senior rider,” Somervell said.
“This young fellow is quite an aggressive rider and showing a lot of promise and she’s not that difficult to ride.
“It’s a long run down the back straight from the 1400 start so he might be able to get her a bit handier. I’m pleased to have him on and I’m sure he’ll do the job well.”
Somervell says he is now semi-retired as a trainer with One Dream One Soul one of only two horses he has in work at the moment.
“But I love getting up in the mornings, especially with a horse like this that always gives 110 per cent,” he said.
Sun is now hot property, recently honoured as the WTA’s newcomer of the year