Puccini fills Alamosa void for McKay
Peter McKay never thought he’d get another horse as good as Alamosa.
The Matamata trainer produced Alamosa for three Gr I wins in New Zealand before selling the O’Reilly colt to an ownership group which transferred him to Melbourne trainer Mick Price, for whom he added the Gr I Toorak Handicap.
These days an emerging stallion at Palmerston North’s Wellfield Lodge, Alamosa has remained the benchmark for McKay. Till now. Yesterday McKay shook his head as he marvelled at his new star Puccini’s remarkable win in Saturday’s Gr I $750,000 TV3 New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie, his fourth big-race win of the summer following the Gr II Great Northern Guineas (1600m) at Ellerslie, the Gr II Waikato Guineas (2000m) at Te Rapa and the Gr II Avondale Guineas (2100m) at Ellerslie.
“He’s the best horse I’ve trained and I never thought I’d say that about another horse after Alamosa,” McKay said yesterday.
“At the time we thought Alamosa was a once-in-a-lifetime horse and while we’ve had some good ones around him but we’re only a small stable and I never thought we’d get one that was better.
“But he’s definitely a better horse than Alamosa. Alamosa was a good horse, a gritty horse, but this horse has got the X-factor to go with it. He’s got the pedigree, the ability and the X-factor.
“Most times you think you’ve had one shot and they don’t come around again, but this horse has turned up and hopefully he’s going to take us places.”
Puccini had dominated from the front in his Waikato and Avondale Guineas wins but he had to overcome adversity to win the Derby.
He was slowly away and didn’t settle well back in the field so jockey Michael Walker sent him forward with 1000m to run, the Paul and Cushla Smithiesbred and owned Encosta De Lago colt making a sustained run that carried him not just up to the leaders but once there onwards as he dashed clear and made his bid for glory.
Rising Romance emerged as the biggest danger, quickening gallantly, but she was still two lengths adrift on the line.
Glorious Lad was 2½ lengths back in third, with 3½ lengths back to outsider Kentucky Son in fourth and a neck back to Weregoingtogetcha.
McKay admitted he was worried once Puccini got back in the field but noted the merit of his performance was a significant statement on just how good he was.
“Amazing. Yes, he could have jumped and led and won and there would be people saying he got away with soft sectionals and there were horses behind him who couldn’t get a run or were victims of bad luck,” McKay said.
Puccini (Michael Walker) dashes clear of Rising Romance, right, and Glorious Lad to win Saturday’s $750,000 T V3 New Zealand Derby.
“But he got back, had to make a sustained run around them and he dealt to them. It was an amazing effort and he has become an amazing horse.”
McKay said Walker’s ride was the winning of the race and his early move to get to the front meant that he avoided the home-straight carnage when Weregoingtogetcha came out and caused interference to several backrunners about to mount their sprint home.
“It’s unbelievable. I’ve always been a two-year-old and three-year-old trainer but never been known as a Derby trainer. I had to get the old book out to work out how to do it. But when you’ve got a good horse like this, everything just falls into place.”
McKay’s initial assessment yesterday was that Puccini had come through his Ellerslie exertions well enough to press on Sydney for a tilt at the Gr I A$ 500,000 Rosehill Guineas (2000m) on March 29 and the Gr I A$ 2 million Australian Derby (2400m) at Randwick on April 12 but he wouldn’t be making a rushed decision.
He was buoyed by the fact that the colt had a dipper of feed at Ellerslie before his float trip home then tucked into his feedbin again once he got back home later that night.
“He ate up last night and he seems happy but you don’t really know with the horse till you get on his back,” McKay said.
“He looks bright but it’s hard to get a true reading on him. To me he’s come through it fine. I’m keen now to go to Aussie. I didn’t want to put any plans in place until after this race but there’s the Rosehill Guineas leading up to the Derby.
“If he’d got beaten or it looked like he’d peaked then he’d be headed to the paddock but he certainly hasn’t peaked and if he’s bright and well in the next couple of days, the plan will be to go to Aussie.
“As a three-year-old you’ve got to be quite dominant in New Zealand to even think about going over there – and he has been.
“In past years, our staying horses have been very competitive over there and we’re pretty keen and confident to go and have a crack at them.”
McKay said he was keen for Puccini to tackle the A$ 3 million Cox Plate (2040m) in Melbourne next October and believed he was the right type of horse for the Moonee Valley feature.
“He seems to be improving with every run but I won’t overtax him. If we get over there and his first run he doesn’t quite do what I want, I won’t hesitate to bring him home.
“Jimmy Choux had a hard two-yearold and hard three-year-old season, winning the Derby and then racing in Sydney, and he ran second in the Cox Plate.
“We’ll do what they did with him and what Gary Hennessy did with Ocean Park and kick him off here in New Zealand as a leadup to the Cox Plate.
“The way he won yesterday stamps him as an ideal Cox Plate horse. He had to sustain a run for 1000m and in the Cox Plate the speed is on early and it goes on again from the half-mile. It’s a high-pressure race and not many horses can cop that.
“He showed yesterday that he does have the stamina and he could still sprint off that from the corner.”
The Derby win assured Puccini of a future at stud as a half-brother to sixtime Gr I winner Sir Slick, while the pedigree page had earlier got a boost when his close relation Little Wonder claimed the Gr III Darley Plate (1200m) for Auckland trainer Stephen McKee.
Puccini’s win no doubt helped the pedigree page of Little Wonder even more, connections of the Volksraad four-year-old entire also having stud ambitions for the three-quarter brother to Sir Slick.