Wellington Steeples target for Palemo
Rising jumps star Palemo will head to Trentham next month in search of a third major for the year.
The Whanganui jumper has won only three races over fences but has made them count.
He won a $20,000 0-1 win steeplechase at Trentham last winter and has added both the Waikato Steeplechase and Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase this year.
His decisive Hastings victory on Saturday took his earnings as a jumper to $80,000, from 13 starts, compared to his flat earnings of $13,000 from 22 attempts.
He will now head to the $75,000 Wellington Steeplechase (5500m) on July 12 and is also likely to tackle the $75,000 Grand National at Riccarton in August.
“As long as he’s sound, he will be going somewhere,” trainer Kevin Myers said.
Palemo did not join the Myers’ team till May last year, when it was decided that the horse’s future lay as a jumper, following stints with part-owner Jeff McVean and Foxton trainer David Haworth, which produced two flat wins.
Palemo has had three wins, two seconds and a third from 10 starts over country and has only once been further back than fifth.
Significantly, his two wins this winter have come on slow tracks, at Te Rapa and Hastings, and he has found it harder in deep ground. “He’s a better horse when the track is all right,” Myers said.
Palemo won at Trentham last July, when the track was a heavy 11, but the ground is always much better on the steeplechase course and the ’chasers only strike the bad ground in the closing stages.
Myers has yet to win a Wellington Steeplechase but could have two contenders next month, with Rioch, the beaten favourite last year, another possible runner.
Myers also won a maiden hurdle with the impressive Sonny Ben at Hastings on Saturday and made his mark in Australia yesterday.
The stable’s top hurdler Sea King, who is in the temporary care of Victorian trainer Patrick Payne, won the A$100,000 Lafferty Hurdles at Warrnambool and Payne also produced Krase, who is part-owned by Myers, to finish second to odds-on favourite Bashboy in the A$100,000 Thackeray Steeplechase.
Myers, who is in second place on the general trainers’ premiership, has had 84 runners over fences in New Zealand this season and more than 40 per cent have finished either first or second, with 20 wins and 15 seconds.