Haussmann too tough in Stakes
THE runners in the Listed Great Northern Foal Stakes were battling through mud at Ellerslie on Saturday.
Talented gelding Haussmann showed the necessary resilience to win the Listed race but the 1400m slog took the Tony Pike-trained son of Pour Moi a pedestrian 1:35.47 to complete.
The Cambridge trainer knows he’s got a classy horse on his hands but the testing Heavy 11 conditions had him worried pre-race.
‘‘Fourteen hundred metres on top of the ground would be ideal,’’ Pike said as he queried the horse’s ability to handle the prevailing conditions.
But jockey Vinnie Colgan got the sometimes eager youngster to settle kindly before asking the strapping galloper for his best.
He responded like a good one to reel in the flying pacemaker So Far So Kool and was strong to the line beating the pacemaker by half a-length with a neck to Ohceedee in third.
‘‘He didn’t try and over-race which was a positive,’’ Pike said. ‘‘He wasn’t liking it [the ground] much up the straight.
‘‘It was good genuine win and points to him being a useful 3-year-old next season.’’
Haussmann was passed in for $35,000 as a Karaka yearling before his purchase by his current owners who include Mark Wyborn and Robin PeelWalker.
Their passion for chasing Derby glory has been well documented and they have another likely candidate for the classic. They raced Queensland Oaks winner Provocative from the Pike stable.
Megablast booked his passage to Australia with a resounding win in the Open 1600 giving jockey Michael Coleman one of the easiest of his 1998 career wins.
‘‘He was jogging all the way,’’ he said as he closes in on 2000 wins. ‘‘It will be nice to get it out of the way – we’re sneaking up on it.
‘‘I won my 1000th here 14 years ago – so hopefully I might get it done today.’’
That didn’t happen but it gives the popular Matamata jockey the opportunity to achieve the milestone on his home track on Wednesday.
Trainer Nigel Tiley described Megablast’s win as ‘‘a nice hit-out before he gets on the plane’’.
‘‘We’re going to take him to Melbourne. The idea is to see how he settles in and give him a couple of runs in June as the owners are keen to campaign him over there again in the spring,’’ Tiley said.
Megablast makes his Victorian debut over 2050m at Moonee Valley on June 17.
‘‘All going well, he’ll kick off there and then we plan to back him up a week later over 2500 metres at Flemington,’’ Tiley said.
‘‘He’s a versatile horse and while some of his best winning form has been on wet tracks, I think that’s because he was just that much better than the others. He doesn’t mind better ground.’’
He will spell on his return from Victoria before being prepared for spring racing.
Close Up kept the Shelley Hale and Grant Cooksley run going with his win in the Open 1200.
Also racking up the wins was jockey Matthew Cameron who rode three winners, Break My Stride, Chambon and Tomelilla for the Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman stable.
TRENTHAM
Allan Sharrock is giving serious thought to backing up his in-form mare Gypsy Fair next Saturday.
The New Plymouth trainer said he rarely raced his horses three weeks in a row but this daughter of Falkirk could be the exception of the rule.
‘‘I haven’t ruled it out the weight-forage race at Wanganui and I’ll nominate her and see how the field comes up,’’ said Sharrock, referring to the Listed AG Challenge Stakes.
‘‘I don’t usually do that but she’s a tough mare.’’
Gypsy Fair produced a dominant front-running performance at Trentham yesterday to win the IRT North Island Challenge Stakes off the back of a fourth placing in the Rotorua Stakes seven days previously.
She is nearing the end of her career and victory in last season’s Merial Metric Mile at Awapuni boosted the value of Gypsy Fair.
‘‘She’s a well-bred mare and she’s likely to be sold as a broodmare at the end of the season,’’ said Sharrock, who shares in the ownership of Gypsy Fair.
‘‘I’ve already got I Do, Madonna Mia and Twoznotenough and they are also all stakes winners.’’
Gypsy Fair travelled comfortably in front at Trentham under stable apprentice Alfred Chan and the mare held a strong gallop to down Heni and last year’s winner Duffers Creek.
‘‘Allan told me if there was no pace to let her roll and she was happy there,’’ he said.
‘‘She handled it very well.’’