No shortage of winners despite the big wet
‘‘From a wide draw Michael Coleman had little option but to push forward in the early stages.’’
Despite the prolonged wet weather that has impacted so heavily on all rural activities, winners from Matamata stables haven’t been in short supply.
Besides big wins by the Stephen Autridge/Jamie Richards-trained pair Gingernuts and Chance To Dance, local training duo Ken and Bev Kelso have chimed in with their first two wins of the season.
At Taupo on Friday, Princess Kereru went one better than her first-up second at the same track a month earlier with a smart win over 1300 metres. From a wide draw Michael Coleman had little option but to push forward in the early stages and the Pins mare delivered with a brave win.
With two wins, three seconds and a worst placing of fifth from her six starts to date, Princess Kereru is clearly a horse with a future. The same is even easier to assume in the case of stablemate Cote D’Or, who took her record to six wins from 13 starts with an impressive fresh-up win at Pukekohe on Sunday.
Last season as a four-year-old the close relation to top gallopers Darci Brahma and Ethereal shaped as a budding middledistance performer, and to see her win so well over 1200 metres on the weekend certainly augurs well for the months ahead.
The Team Wealleans Matamata Cup on her home course on October 14 will be Cote D’Or’s first major spring mission, after which she will step back up to middle-distance racing.
Wayne Hillis continued his strong start to the new season when he produced Watch This Space for an easy win in the open sprint at Hastings on the weekend.
Watch This Space had won his first start for the spring at Ruakaka earlier in the month and again combining with champion apprentice Sam Weatherley, he easily accounted for his Hastings rivals. His next start will be the Gr. 3 Spring Sprint on the fi al day of the Hawke’s Bay carnival.