Sisters dominate Cup
Sisters Kelly Mcculloch and Rosie Myers enjoyed a special moment when they quinellaed Saturday’s New Zealand Cup at Riccarton.
Mcculloch’s mount, Pump Up The Volume, and Perfect Start, ridden by Myers, both charged to the lead 150 metres out and neither weakened in the run to the line. Pump Up The Volume won by half a head.
‘‘I thought Rosie had beaten me,’’ Mcculloch, of Pukekohe, said.
‘‘He [Pump Up The Volume] came into the race at the right time and finished it off strongly.’’
Mcculloch’s record on the Savabeel gelding stands at six rides for a win, four seconds and a third. They were runner-up in the Rotorua and Taumarunui Cups.
Pump Up The Volume gave Mcculloch and trainer Ralph Manning their third NZ Cup win.
Mcculloch rode the 2014 (Mungo Jerry) and 2008 (Hoorang) winners, while Manning’s earlier success in the race was with Laud Peregrine (1997) and Oak Vue (1986).
The easy track on Saturday suited Pump Up The Volume.
‘‘He likes the jar out of the ground because he’s got a club foot,’’ Manning, of Cambridge, said.
Manning and Paeroa accountant Tony Coombe own Pump Up The Volume, whose dam Nat The Brat won nine races, including two Group III races, the Cornwall Handicap and Rotorua Cup.
Nat The Brat won the Winter Classic at Riccarton in her last race start.
Pump Up The Volume is to be turned out and Manning will soon work out a new race schedule.
New Zealand Cup runner-up Perfect Start will also spell, with her long term mission being the Auckland Cup in March.
Matamata trainer Wayne Hillis said there was a possibility she could start in January’s Wellington Cup.
Favourite Nymph Monte overraced and didn’t like the easy track, Opaki trainer Grant Nicholson said.
‘‘It was still a tough effort to run fifth.’’
Cup runner Sureasyouwereborn was pulled up on the home turn suffering from cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beat).
News of the heart problem shocked Tapanui trainers Nikki and Barrie Blatch.
‘‘I was devastated when I heard . . . I thought that was it [she was finished],’’ Nikki said.
Sureasyouwereborn was okay on Sunday, but will be examined by the Blatches’ veterinarian this week.
Invercargill mare Miss Three Stars got toey in the birdcage and galloped unkindly to the start. She wouldn’t pull up at the barrier and eventually stopped in the chute near the 1200m start.
‘‘She got worked up really bad, wouldn’t settle and got into a sweat,’’ trainer Tommy Beckett said.
Miss Three Stars looked a chance turning for home but faded to ninth in the last 200m.
Kaharau was treated by the racecourse veterinarian after running seventh.
The gelding was distressed when returning to the stables, cotrainer Lisa Rae said.
An injection soon returned Kaharau to normal.
Stablemate Prom Queen romped home in the $50,000 Welcome Stakes at Saturday’s premier race day at Riccarton.
The Super Easy-finishing School filly is being considered for the $100,000 Wakefield Challenge Stakes at Trentham on December 3.