Racing: Bejayjay storms home

Levin galloper Bejayjay kept his Wellington Cup hopes alive when scoring an emphatic win in the Stratford Cup (2000m) yesterday.

At his previous appearance, the Coral Reef seven-year-old had failed to beat a rival home in the Metropolitan Handicap (2500m) at Riccarton on November 6. Yesterday he returned a win dividend of $11.45 in a field of nine.

Owner-trainer Peter McKenzie put the turnaround in form down to injuries the horse received when becoming straddled over a partition in the trailer transporting him home after his win three starts back at Ellerslie.

McKenzie said Bejayjay appeared to have escaped injury at first. But it wasn't until much later and the horse had raced twice that the full effects of the incident became known.

Yesterday Bejayjay trailed third in the early and middle stages before rider Bruce Herd sent him forward to claim the lead on the home turn.

He drew out to score by just over two lengths from Native Song with favourite Partee running home strongly along the inner for third after being held up for a run.
McKenzie was kicking himself after the Stratford Cup that he hadn't done what he intended and taken the bookmakers 100-1 odds for the Wellington Cup before yeserday's race.

"I clicked on to the internet this morning and thought he's better than a 100-1 shot, but I got busy and never got round to backing him."

McKenzie has his fingers crossed that Bejayjay's stablemate, Empyreal, will make the field for the $350,000 Auckland Cup today. Empyreal needs one scratching to make the field.

"He's very well at the moment and will be very hard to beat."

Apart from running a stud farm at Ohau, in the Horowhenua, where he stands the stallion His Royal Highness, McKenzie has 13 horses in work and in his spare time is an actor.

A lawyer when living in south Taranaki for 16 years in the 1970s and 1980s before moving to Ohau, McKenzie played the part of King Elendil in the Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings. He is involved in Jackson's latest project, the remake of King Kong.

- NZPA