Prince and Parkes rule
Johnathan Parkes turned his red hot riding form into another feature race win at Trentham on Saturday.
The Waverley jockey ventured north to Ellerslie for feature wins over the holidays.
Group II wins on Volpe Veloce and St Jean and a career highlight Group I on Start Wondering preceded Saturday’s Listed Marton Cup success aboard Alinko Prince with another top class ride.
The son of Alamosa had run second in each of his three previous races and Parkes was of the opinion he wasn’t quite trying right to the line.
The key was to come with the last run and snatch victory late in the race.
A slight gear change and Parkes’ carefully executed plan saw the major slice of the $55,000 stake heading home to Marton along with the shiny cup.
The gear change was the removal of blinkers and the addition of visor blinkers in the hope the 5-year-old gelding would see his oppositions coming.
It worked and gave Marton trainer Fraser Auret a massive thrill to win his hometown feature.
‘‘We have a big enough mortgage there,’’ he said. ‘‘So it will be nice to have a cup to say we’ve won something.’’
The Marton Cup is historically run at Awapuni but the meeting was transferred to Trentham after track problems temporarily closed the Palmerston North track.
Auret will make the journey south again in a fortnight as he chases an even bigger and shinier, and considerably more valuable prize.
‘‘We thought this would be a lovely pipe-opener for the Wellington Cup,’’ he said.
The $250,000 Group III Wellington Cup over 3200m is the race Auret wants with the John Bromley-owned stayer he describes as a ‘‘beautiful, big, raw horse’’ who has won six from 22 and around $100,000.
He will clash with Saturday’s runner-up Jacksstar in the race.
The Manawatu Cup winner at his previous start, Jacksstar will benefit from Saturday’s race and has been set for the 3200m feature.
‘‘He’s a true blue two-miler,’’ his trainer Gary Vile said. ‘‘He’s an old-fashioned stayer and they are hard to find.’’
The Marton Cup was the day’s feature race at but arguably the highlight of the day came a few races earlier.
A powerful galloper named Shadow Fox stamped himself as a horse going places with an emphatic victory in the Premier Open over 1400m.
With a Rating of 72, he was taking on several higher rated performers but that didn’t matter as he thrashed them by four and a-half lengths.
The 6-year-old’s cause was aided by a masterly frontrunning Robbie Hannam ride which took the hores’s record to four wins for Hawera trainer and part-owner Steve Gulliver.