Taniwha delivers for late trainer

FORMER Ascot Park trainer Kelly Thompson was remembered with Taniwha’s win in the Invercargill Gold Cup at Ascot Park on Saturday.

The horse powered to victory in the $40,000 feature for rider Jillian Morris.

Taniwha is raced by the estate of his cobreeder, the late Kelly Thompson, who died last year. Anne McFarlane, whose late husband, Don, also cobred the horse, also shares in Taniwha’s ownership.

Taniwha is trained by Thompson’s soninlaw, Jim Curran.

Earlier at Ascot Park, northern filly Global Thinking justified her favouritism for the Invercargill Guineas with a comfortable win.

She signalled she would be tough to beat in the race with her good second placing in this month’s Dunedin Guineas behind Excelleration. With no Excelleration to contend with on Saturday, the race was wide open for her.

‘‘Life was a lot easier without Excelleration in the race,’’ trainer Shaune Ritchie said.

Global Thinking’s win was the second Invercargill Guineas winner for Richie, who won with The Hyatt in 1995.

‘‘The Hyatt was a gelding and the key factor here was identifying a filly that is a length or two below the 3yrolds up north and turning her into a blacktype winner,’’ Richie said.

‘‘She’s cemented her broodmare career now. Placing this type of filly to do that was always the way to go.’’

Global Thinking was likely to run in listed company at Wingatui next month before returning to the North Island, he said.

Consistent performer Coulee showed she was on track to defend her group 3 South Island Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes title at Riccarton next month with her win on Saturday.

The horse provided the first leg of a winning treble for the Brian and Shane Anderton stable.

‘‘She has been going well of late and had been quite unlucky a couple of times,’’ Shane Anderton said. ‘‘It probably didn’t really suit her last time at weightforage, as she’s only a wee dot, but she battled on strongly and we thought she would be tough to roll this time.’’

Last year’s runnerup behind Coulee in the Breeders’ Stakes, Fascinate, also won for the Anderton stable on Saturday.

‘‘She will go to Riccarton now to tackle the Breeders’ Stakes again. We’ll just see how she does over the next few days before we decide whether she has one more run before Riccarton or not.’’

Anderton was also pleased with the win of Crispin, who came from well back to score her second career victory after breaking maidens on her home track earlier in the month.

‘‘She is a talented mare and you don’t often see them come from that far back at Invercargill,’’ he said.

‘‘I think she was in the last four turning for home, so it was a very good performance.’’ — additional reporting NZ Racing Desk