Catalyst scorches home
Catalyst continued his dominance of spring 3-year-old racing with another breathtaking performance in Saturday’s group two Sacred Falls Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m).
A spectacular winner of the Listed El Roca-Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m) and group three Northland Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) in his previous two starts, the super-talented son of Darci Brahma headed to Hastings on Saturday as a $1.30 favourite to complete a black-type treble.
But he was caught wide after an awkward start, and rider Troy Harris had no choice but to burn some petrol and sprint forward to take the lead at the end of the back straight.
After doing that much work early in a race, most horses would be vulnerable in the home straight. But Catalyst is no ordinary 3-year-old. He was able to sprint again, running away from Callsign Mav.
Harris eased Catalyst down in the last 50m, winning by two and threequarter lengths in a time of 1:22.65.
Callsign Mav produced a remarkable performance in his own right, beating the rest of the field by seven lengths, while Aotea Lad was third.
“He’s scary, he just keeps improving,” Harris said. “He was slow away and I opted to go forward and take bad luck out of the equation. He was just too good. I had to have a couple of looks over my shoulder, just to see where everything else was.
“He’ll be even better over a mile (1600m) — he’ll eat it up.”
Born on November 16, so still not yet a 3-year-old, Catalyst is now the winner of four of his five starts for owner-breeder Dick Karreman.
The blue-and-white The Oaks Stud colours had previously been carried to a close second placing in the Hawke’s Bay Guineas by All Decked Out in 2013.
“Wow, that was something special,” trainer Clayton Chipperfield said. “Having a horse like this is just an absolute dream start to my training career.” Catalyst is now rated a $1.15 chance for the 2000 Guineas — rare odds for an elite race in New Zealand.