Racing: Rollercoaster year for Jenkins ends on high note

Jason Waddell celebrates his first group one win aboard Bazelle yesterday - and he really wanted to enjoy the special moment. Picture / Dean Purcell

Paul Jenkins put a horror year behind him when, in one of the training feats of the season, he saddled up Bazelle for a fresh-up win in the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie yesterday.

A week short of 12 months ago the Matamata trainer was the toast of Ellerslie when Bazelle ran away with the Auckland Cup. But rather than propel him into the elite of his profession, that victory in the country's major staying contest failed to attract a single extra horse to his stable.

By the winter, when he had headed to Australia on a long-range Melbourne Cup mission, the Jenkins team had been virtually halved to just 20. Adding to his dearth of winners domestically, a hoped-for major Australian win with Bazelle failed to eventuate when, as Jenkins put it so succinctly yesterday, "everything that could go wrong did."

But one result, a close up sixth placing in the Yalumba Stakes at Caulfield in October, kept Jenkins' hopes alive that Bazelle was up to New Zealand weight-for-age class.

"She had a month in the paddock after Melbourne and I figured she was worth bringing back for a crack at this race. There didn't look like a lot of weight-for-age horses around," he said yesterday.

"She's a natural stayer and wouldn't need a lot to get ready for 2000 metres."

Bazelle's most strenuous exercise was a float-ride to Paeroa last week and a solid hitout on the course proper.

Happy with what he learned from that outing, Jenkins let his mare off with a final Saturday morning workout of 600 metres at the end of striding work on her home track.

The end result was a neck victory over another Matamata mare Kind Return, making it back-to-back Zabeel Classic victories for the stallion the race is named after, and a quinella to boot.

Afterwards Jenkins wasn't planning another trip to Australia with Bazelle, but he is fully focused on trying for a second Auckland Cup win.

The rescheduling of the race to March suits him fine.

"She can have a week in the paddock and then we'll bring her back here," he said.

"She'll probably only need one run to get her ready."

Bazelle's breeder and principal owner, Victorian Lorna Moore, never lost faith in either Jenkins or Bazelle and was the only member of the syndicate on hand for yesterday's big win.

"I decided last week after talking to Paul that I should fly across. I shopped around and got a $1200 fare, ignored my husband when he told me I was mad, and here I am," said the former Kiwi.

Race sponsor Sir Patrick Hogan put his money where his mouth was with a bet of $100 each way on the 22-1 shot.

"As soon as I found out that Lorna was coming across I knew what horse I'd be backing," he explained.

Sir Patrick, who was yesterday accorded life membership of the Auckland Racing Club, had further good news for Moore, a shareholder in Zabeel, when he met her at the races.

"We'd been struggling all season with Lorna's mare Tiffany Heights, but the other day we finally tested her positive to Zabeel."

There was also a certain irony to the first group one win for jockey Jason Waddell, who just days ago relocated to Matamata and the stable of Kind Return's trainer John Sargent.

"Bazelle was the first offer I got but even after getting the chance to ride Kind Return I knew I was on the right one," he said.

"She's already got group one form and proved it again."

Warm favourite Kerry O'Reilly was never a prospect before making ground late for seventh, travelled well before struggling in the easy ground with 700 metres to run.

* El Duce was retired after the race.