Sea King riding crest of wave
WHANGANUI GALLOPER Sea King made an early statement for Wednesday’s Grand National Hurdles, with a dour victory in the Sydenham Hurdles yesterday.
The Kevin Myers trained seven-yearold outstayed his opposition in the time-honoured feature after a gruelling 3100 metres.
The win against many of the horses he will face on Wednesday should see the son of Shinko King shift into warm favouritism for the mid-week feature.
And that’s a position that sits fine with the Myers’ camp.
Unlucky in the Sydenham last year when making a mistake in final stages of the race, Myers’ right-hand man, Ken Harrison, said there was a significant difference in the Sea King who raced at Riccarton last year, to the one who delivered so boldly yesterday.
‘‘ He’s come a long way since last year, he was only a baby back then really,’’ Harrison said. ‘‘Mentally he’s toughened up a lot and strength wise
He’s come a long way since last year, he [Sea King] was only a baby back then really Stable spokesman Ken Harrison
he is definitely a lot stronger.
‘‘He should improve with that run too, but it was certainly a nice trial for Wednesday, and he looked like he settled a lot better today.’’
Harrison was quick to heap plenty of praise on jockey Jo Rathbone, who showed great understanding of her charge to get him home first.
‘‘It’s a big bonus having Jo on horse, she knows him so well.
‘‘ She moved him out a few horse widths coming up the straight, because you could see all he wanted to do was get in behind that other horse [Yamanaura].’’
The John aura wasn’t
this Wheeler- trained Yamandisgraced after looking a likely winner at the top of the straight.
The former Moonee Valley Hurdles winner will derive plenty of benefit from the outing and looks one who clearly won’t be out of the Grand National Hurdles.
The defending champion of both the Sydenham and Grand National, Wotabuzz, finished a distant third, but is yet again another who looks to be crying out for more ground, and a more testing racing surface.
The Myers’ stable was back to the fore a couple of races later when Snowdroptwinkletoes turned in an impressive performance in the maiden steeplechase.
The ghostly grey jumper was also ridden by Rathbone, who played a patient game early on, before allowing her charge to shift into the race with 1000 metres left.
He dashed clear rounding the final bend and was eased down to the winning post by Rathbone.
Her early double took her career tally to 99 jumping wins, a total which looks sure to reach the century by the end of the week.