Cruz ready for big stage
BOXING DAY 2014 might be a memorable one for Cambridge brothers Trevor and Martin Cruz.
The brothers, in their first season as a training partnership after Trevor established a stable at Cambridge the previous year, will have their first Group I runner together.
In addition, they have solid prospects in two of the supporting races.
“Last year, I remember sitting at home watching the Boxing Day races from Ellerslie on Trackside thinking how good it would be to have a runner there,” Trevor, 31 said.
“Now we have three runners going there and one of them in the Group I.”
Outstanding galloper Fay Fay will be the stable representative in the prestigious Zabeel Classic.
The weight-for-age Zabeel became an obvious target after Fay Fay, who had done all his previous racing in Hong Kong, made an impressive New Zealand debut with victory in the Group II Tauranga Stakes on November 15.
He was irresistible in the 1600m feature, beating Julinsky Prince, I Do, Veyron and Survived in his first race since May 2013.
Everything has gone to plan since with Fay Fay, who is treated with kid gloves due to a bit of wear and tear from his 24-start career.
“We don’t gallop him as much as we would like to,” Trevor Cruz said. “We have to use slightly unorthodox training methods. We look after him with a lot of maintenance work.
“He does a lot of long, slow work. He pulled up really well from his Tauranga race and everything is in order for Friday.”
The Cruz brothers hail from one of Hong Kong’s best known racing families, with both their
Trevor Cruz father, Derek, and an uncle, Tony, respected trainers, after successful careers in the saddle.
Making today’s meeting even more special for Trevor and Martin will be the presence of their family at Ellerslie, with their parents and a brother in New Zealand for Christmas.
“It will be a big day,” Trevor said, as he put the finishing touches on Fay Fay and the stable’s other runners, Packing Tycoon and Casillas.
Fay Fay, a $13,000 yearling buy at Karaka, was bred by successful Whanganui breeder Peter Smith.
The Falkirk gelding, who is now seven, recorded his biggest win in the 2012 Hong Kong Derby.
He finished in the first five in five other Group I races, including a fourth behind Military Attack and Pure Champion in the Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) in February 2013.
He had six wins and four seconds from 23 starts in Hong Kong and has earned almost $2.5 million in stakes.
The Hong Kong Derby has been his only middle distance win, with his six other wins coming at either 1400m or 1600m.
Mark Sweeney handled Fay Fay in his Tauranga win and retains the mount today.
Opie Bosson will ride Packing Tycoon and Casillas, two other former Hong Kong gallopers.
Packing Tycoon looks well placed in the rating 85 2100m. He made a winning debut in New Zealand in February, in a rating 85 1400m and then finished a respectable fifth in the Group I Haunui Classic.
He measured up in good company again at his next start, when fifth, beaten 1.5 lengths, in the Group II Japan Trophy at Tauranga, before failing on a heavy track in the Hawke’s Bay Cup.
He has had three starts in a new campaign and finished fourth, behind Sakhee’s Soldier, Veyron and Shandream, in the Group III Eagle Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie at his last start.
He did not win in Hong Kong but raced in good company and was seventh in Fay Fay’s Hong Kong Derby and fifth in the Hong Kong Classic Mile.
Packing Tycoon who has raced in five countries, began his career in Ireland.
He won a Group III 2000m at The Curragh as a three-year-old and finished third, behind the subsequent multiple Group I winners Nathaniel and Fiorente, in a Group II 2400m at Ascot.
“We’ve changed a few things with him,” Cruz said. “We hope he can run to his ability. Now that he’s been in the stable for a while, I have had the chance to understand him a bit better and plan accordingly.”
Casillas, who tackles the rating 75 1400m at his third start in a new campaign, was sold to Hong Kong after making a winning debut in New Zealand but was injured in Hong Kong and never raced there.
“His last run things didn’t go his way,” Cruz said. “The tempo was a bit quick and he never got in the race.”