Careful training brings success
FORMER champion jockey Lance O’Sullivan rated the win by Willie Cazals in yestereday’s Group I $250,000 Livamol Classic the equal of when he produced Pentane to win the Auckland Cup 10 years ago.
‘‘This win rates right up there with Pentane’s Auckland Cup win,’’ O’Sullivan said.
‘‘To get this horse back to win this race after all the problems he has had, is extremely satisfying.’’
Matamata-based O’Sullivan and his training partner Andrew Scott have resurrected the racing career of Willie Cazals and the 9-year-old upstaged the more favoured runners yesterday.
Willie Cazals was a former top performer in Hong Kong, where he was twice narrowly beaten at Group I level when trained by Tony Cruz. But the horse broke down badly, bowing tendons in both front legs, and it was decided to retire him.
Waikato bloodstock agent Stu- art Hale, who had initially bought the horse for clients of Tony Cruz several years earlier, suggested that he be sent to New Zealand and tried again as a racehorse.
O’Sullivan said Willie Cazals arrived at his Matamata base more than a year ago and was immediately turned out on the hills to hopefully repair his leg damage.
‘‘After about four months we brought him back in but he still wasn’t right. So we turned him out for another six months and when he came back the second time everything seemed fine,’’ O’Sullivan said.
Willie Cazals was having his fourth start from his new base yesterday and his victory followed a third over 1600 metres at Pukekohe a fortnight ago.
‘‘This was the only one of the Hawke’s Bay Group I races that we nominated him for and we’ve given him a steady build up,’’ O’Sullivan said.
The horse’s training mainly involves hours of swimming with his last track gallop before yester- day being on Monday of last week.
It was the second time O’Sullivan and Scott had plundered one of the Group I races at the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival with a former Hong Kong trained horse after producing Pure Champion to win the Windsor Park Plate two years ago.
Pure Champion was ridden to victory that day by Craig Grylls and the same jockey was aboard Willie Cazals yesterday.
‘‘I’ve now won eight Group I races and this is the first since Pure Champion,’’ Grylls said.
The 26-year-old was emulating Trish Dunell his father Gary Grylls, who won the equivalent to the Livamol Classic 20 years ago with Love Dance.
‘‘I’m absolutely over the moon with this win,’’ Grylls said.
Jockey Leith Innes pulled off a masterstroke when he persuaded Mongolian Falcon’s co-trainer, Donna Logan, to line the horse up in the Group II $100,000 Hawke’s Bay Guineas.
Mongolian Falcon ran his rivals ragged winning by five lengths in the 3-year-old feature.
Logan was in two minds about bringing the son of Fastnet Rock back to Hastings after he finished a well-beaten third over 1200 metres on the second day of the Hawke’s Bay spring carnival a fortnight ago, but Innes had other ideas.
‘‘Leith told me to bring him back and he would win the guineas and he’s been proved spot on,’’ Logan said.
‘‘He said that he would improve a lot from the second day run and, to be fair, the horse has improved lengths. HALL Of Fame has booked his spot in the 2000 Guineas and his trainers rate him a chance of making the honours board.
Half an hour before the Hawke’s Bay Guineas, where previously unbeaten Te Akau stablemate Heroic Valour ran third, Hall Of Fame blitzed the field in the Inglewood Stud Guineas Trial at Riccarton.
Te Akau’s now not so secret weapon kept the tangerine flag flying with a three and a quarter length win that assures his Guineas start.
Jamie Richards, who trains in partnership with Stephen Autridge, said Heroic Valour holds the stable’s number one ranking heading towards the Guineas but Hall Of Fame is a ‘‘very close second’’.
‘‘We’ve always held him in high regard,’’ Richards said.
Te Akau principal David Ellis purchased Hall Of Fame out of the Ready To Run for $230,000.
His second win prompted bookmakers to crunch Hall Of Fame in from $14 to $9 in the Guineas market.
Mongolian Falcon‘s Hawke’s Bay Guineas win has moved him into a $5 favourite with Heroic Valour and Sweet Leader both at $6.
Hall Of Fame will return to Riccarton for the Listed Stakes (1600m) on October 22.
By Savabeel out of Around The Clock, who won over 1900m in Australia, the 1600m trip of the Group I Guineas should not be an issue.
Earlier in the day John and Karen Parsons unleashed a Welcome Stakes candidate in Kiwi Ida who upset Sensei to win the Nobby Bussell Memorial by a head.
Kiwi Ida, the first runner by Squamosa to hit the track, gave the Australian sire the perfect start with a win on debut.
Maybe Miami‘s win on Saturday guarantees his start in the $230,000 Group II Coupland’s Bakeries Mile on the middle day of Cup Week in what was a memorable day for the Kevin and Pam Hughes stable.
Bonaparte, their other winner at Riccarton, was the first career win for stable apprentice Tanya Jonker who produced a daring front-running ride to win by a length.
‘ To get this horse back to win this race after all the problems he has had, is extremely satisfying.’ LANCE O'SULLIVAN