By BARRY STREET
Mark down Van Winkle as a horse worth following through to the Winter Cup at Riccarton in August.
Wanganui trainers Evan and J. J. Rayner have a high opinion of the Yachtie 4-year-old, who is closely related to a former star winter galloper, Gatcombe's Pride.
So does ace jockey Lance O'Sullivan, who rode Van Winkle for the first time for a decisive win in a premier quality 1600m at Te Rapa on Saturday.
Five wins and five placings from 14 starts and only once unplaced on soft or heavy tracks is Van Winkle's record to date.
It is a formline he could embellish at his local meeting on Queen's Birthday weekend - provided he is not harshly weighted in another premier-quality race there.
Alternatively he could come north again for the Great Northern carnival at Ellerslie or wait for the Wellington winter meeting at Trentham in July.
Long range, the Winter Cup is his main mission.
Evan Rayner said yesterday that his only doubts about Van Winkle's chance on Saturday were the rather scary facts that the horse had raced once in nine months and was encountering a track that could hardly have been heavier.
"We'd had him in work for ages, waiting for the tracks to ease, but didn't expect him to strike one so heavy second up."
O'Sullivan said it was the power of a big horse that stood to Van Winkle in a battling finish with another consistent lower North Island 4-year-old, Andy.
"Van Winkle had a big weight [57kg]," he said, "and the other horse only 52.5kg.
"It was a good effort and indicated to me that he could easily get 2000m or further later on."
The father-and-daughter Rayner team thought so much of Van Winkle before he resumed racing this year that they never hesitated to buy for some of their eldest, most loyal clients, a weanling half-brother from a paddock.
The youngster is by Tuscany Flyer and, according to Evan Rayner, a lovely individual in the same mould as Van Winkle.
Winning at Te Rapa was not the only thrill for the Rayners on Saturday. They also produced at Otaki the first winner in this country by the Waikato Stud sire O'Reilly, whom Lance O'Sullivan rode in a restricted career to win a Bayer Classic at Otaki and a Telegraph Handicap at Trentham.
Vera Pro Gratis, a 2-year-old filly by O'Reilly from the former good racemare Nat The Brat, had previously managed four successive placings for a syndicate of Wanganui Jockey Club members before her two-length win over 1000m at Otaki.
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Oakley and Ebony Boy were other lower North Island success stories on the flat at Te Rapa.
Woodville owner-trainer Neil Connors was apprehensive about giving Oakley Boy an open-class debut in such heavy, trying conditions.
The 4-year-old was attempting a 1600m double after winning in 1:37 over the same course on April 28.
This time it took him 1:47.21 - nearly two seconds slower than Van Winkle - yet he still proved two and a quarter lengths too good in the Instrument Supplies 1600 for Just There and Trigger.
Connors, a farmer and uncle of prominent amateur jockey Raymond Connors, said he was glad to be talked into the double attempt by Te Awamutu jockey Mark Sweeney.
Ebony Boy's form leading up to Saturday's premier-quality Eprinex 2100 indicated he would be another top ride for Lance O'Sullivan.
He had been fourth to Gordon's in the group three Manawatu Classic at Awapuni last month and had romped away with a class-one 2100m at Awapuni on May 3.
This time, on the heaviest going he had encountered, Ebony Boy had only to be kept up to his work to beat another Taranaki horse, Real Tonic.
"It was a good performance for a 3-year-old, even though he had a light weight," O'Sullivan said.
"He did [coped with] the ground, but I wouldn't say he was a true mudder."
Racing: Van Winkle comes alive at Te Rapa
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