Famous colours in upset Great Nth Hurdle win
An aggressive Hamish Mcneill ride laid the platform for an upset as $29 shot Abu Dhabi carried a set of famous colours to victory in the $150,000 Great Northern Hurdle at Te Rapa yesterday.
Discussions leading into the 4200m marathon centred on the topweights Nedwin and Kajino, who had fought out the finish of the Pakuranga Hurdle at the same track two weeks earlier, when Abu Dhabi had been a well beaten fifth.
The confidence levels of Mcneill and co-trainers Shaun and Emma Clotworthy was still high, however, as they hatched a plan for their onerace winner to apply the pressure to the two horses who were conceding a significant amount of weight.
Mcneill carried out those plans perfectly, putting the pressure on pacemaking Nedwin’s back from the start and going forward to eyeball Aaron Kuru’s mount commencing the final round.
Maintaining the pressure, Abu Dhabi went three lengths clear midway down the back straight and still held that buffer at the top of the home straight with three fences remaining.
Put under real duress after the penultimate flight, things went slightly awry as Abu Dhabi veered wide and Kajino mounted a final effort.
The pair jumped the last fence with no more than a length between them as Abu Dhabi continued to run wide while Kajino was hard up against the inside rail as they hit the finish line.
Mcneill was amongst those unable to be sure which way the result went, but judge John Craig settled that with his initial call followed by confirmation of Abu Dhabi’s longneck victory over the brave Kajino.
Another outsider, Banks Road hit the line strongly to finish third four lengths away, while Nedwin, who had suffered a midweek setback with a hoof problem, weakened to fourth.
‘‘That was the plan, use his light weight and put the pressure on the other two,’’ said cotrainer Shaun Clotworthy, who prepares the Haradasun gelding for his father Kim and co-breeders Ross and Margaret Ellett.
‘‘He was just fair last time here, but we had set him for the race and Hamish carried it out perfectly.’’
Veteran horseman Kim
Clotworthy has a long list of winners to his name, the most famous of them Uncle Remus, who he part-owned when he swept all before him as a threeyear-old in the mid-1970s.
Meanwhile Kiddo, a horse written off all of four years ago and recently on the verge of retirement, completed what can only be described as the greatest of comebacks in the Great Northern Steeplechase (6500m).
The ‘‘old firm’’ of master Wanganui horseman Kevin Myers and leading jumps jockey Shaun Fannin, who joined forces in the country’s premier jumps event with Kick Back in 2016, were back in business as they combined with Kiddo for an emphatic victory.
Kiddo took Myers’ Great Northern Steeplechase record to three wins – the first of them with Our Jonty in 1998 – while Fannin can now boast four, the others being Wise Men Say in 2019 and Magic Wonder two years ago.
Fannin was the epitome of patience on Kiddo, tucking the Istidaad gelding in behind the pacemaking duo of Magic Wonder and Magic Cannon before making his bid with 600m to run and from that point never looking like being headed.