Chittick stable on song
Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick is making a habit of beating race meeting abandonments.
Chittick won a race at Hastings on Saturday before the meeting was called off and did the same on Monday.
Hastings managed to run five races before safety issues arose but Monday’s Kilmore meeting in Victoria only lasted one race.
Stewards abandoned the meeting after the Nick Ryan-trained Hot Girl Wanted almost fell when he slipped rounding the home turn.
The race was won by She’s Popular, owned by Chittick and his father Garry, and prepared for them by the Hayes and Dabernig training partnership at Flemington.
‘‘It’s quite unbelievable really to have winners before both meetings were called off,’’ Chittick said.
‘‘It’s unfortunate for the clubs but pretty exciting to have two nice horses win so well.’’
The Waikato Stud bred and reared She’s Popular is by resident sire Savabeel out of It Girl by the stud’s deceased champion sire O’Reilly and was on debut in a maiden over 1112m.
‘‘She has been in Aussie for about six weeks after being broken-in here and doing all her early preparation and to be fair we had a pretty good opinion of her,’’ he said.
On the back of glowing reports from her successful trainers, the filly jumped as favourite and big things are in the pipeline.
‘‘The trainers had a big opinion of her before the race and reports are they are now looking for a suitable black-type race for her.’’
Hastings was abandoned after Bostonian slipped when pulling up after the Hawke’s Bay Guineas but not before Bullrush, a horse formerly trained and raced in Aust- ralia for the Waikato Stud team, won the Rating 85 sprint.
By O’Reilly, the 6-year-old returned home earlier in the year after commencing his racing career in Sydney.
Unbeaten in his first five starts from the Rosehill stable of John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes, he placed once in five subsequent races. He’s now beach-trained at Waiuku by Moira and Kieran Murdoch and if he keeps his mind on the job could be competitive at the top level.
Similar to She’s Popular, Bullrush jumped cleanly for jockey Leith Innes and travelled comfortably in front throughout to win well.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of fun with this horse and we have all the staff involved, they race him with us,’’ Chittick said.
‘‘There’s a few of us who went down on Saturday although it’s a busy time of the year and it was a bit of a rush to get there. It was great to get a result like that.
‘‘We knew he had the ability so we thought we’d bring him home, give him to Moira and do a bit of work on the beach.’’
The Livamol Classic and Red Badge Sprint from the abandoned meeting have been rescheduled to run on Sunday, October 22 at Hastings.
Connections aren’t tempted to head back to Hastings with Bullrush but he may be tested in black-type company next month at Te Rapa.
‘‘I haven’t talked with the Chitticks and I want to wait to see what plans they might have,’’ Murdoch said.
‘‘But the Legacy Lodge Sprint may be a suitable race for him.
‘‘The horse has come through Saturday’s race well with no issues. He’s a lovely horse, a real gentleman.’’