Baker bags 1500th NZ win

Leading trainer Murray Baker has notched 1500 wins in New Zealand.

Baker reached the milestone when Trudeau provided the Cambridge horseman with the first leg of a winning treble at Avondale on Wednesday. Appropriately, Trudeau is partowned by Baker and his wife, Marianne.

It had already been a good month for Baker, who was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame on February 9, the day before Lizzie L’Amour won the $400,000 Herbie Dyke Stakes, New Zealand’s richest weight-for-age race, at Te Rapa.

Baker and his training partner Andrew Forsman might record another Group I win when reigning Horse of the Year Bonneval resumes in the Haunui Farm Classic (1600m) at Hastings on Saturday. Bonneval, who has not raced in New Zealand for almost a year, opened as a $3.50 favourite for the weight-for-age feature.

Baker’s first training win came in a non-tote maiden with the three-year-old Vizier at Otaki in October 1978. Vizier also gave Baker his first feature win, when beating Uncle Remus in the weight-for-age Jackson Stakes in the same season.

Baker has rarely been without a capable three-year-old since and has won the Australian Derby (four times), Victoria Derby, Rosehill Guineas, Randwick Guineas, New Zealand Derby, NZ Oaks (three times), Levin Classic (three times), NZ Two Thousand Guineas (twice) and South Australian Oaks.

His list of feature wins also includes the Caulfield Cup, Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Auckland Cup, Sydney Cup and Brisbane Cup and he has won the Group I Underwood Stakes in Melbourne four times. He will seek another classic win on Saturday week when Mission Hill and Vin De Dance tackle the $1 million New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie. Vin De Dance ran third in the Avondale Guineas at his last start and Mission Hill was a luckless fifth in the same race.

Baker has won almost 50 Group I races, including 21 in Australia, and the stable will be well represented at the Sydney autumn carnival again this year, beginning with Francaletta and Australian Derby entrant Weather With You, who are being flown to Sydney this week. Francaletta will make her Australian debut in the Group II Guy Walter Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on March 3.

The stable is dominating the New Zealand trainers’ premiership, with 81 wins already this term and the stable’s stake earnings for the season, including Australia, have topped $3.4 million.