News In Brief
Regency Legend (red & green colours) maintains his unbeaten record in Hong Kong Photo: Hong Kong Jockey Club
Prince Jabeel aiming for crowning glory
It has been a whirlwind few months for talented stayer Prince Jabeel.
The Brendan and Jo Lindsay-owned gelding has gone from winning his maiden at Taupo in September to winning the Gr.3 City of Auckland Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day and placing in the Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m) at Trentham earlier this month.
Trainer Lance Noble has been pleased with the Savabeel gelding’s improvement and believes Prince Jabeel’s win at Taupo flicked a switch in the five-year-old’s mind.
“He ran terrific (at Trentham), I’m really proud of him,” Noble said. “He was carrying 59 kilos and the first six horses home were all carrying 53kg except for him, so it was a terrific run.
“He was just a very immature horse early on and he’s a big horse and we ran him on a few wet tracks, but he’s a genuine firm track horse now.
“It was almost like the penny dropped when he won at Taupo and learnt how to win. He’s got competitive, is very genuine and tries really hard.”
Noble has put Prince Jabeel out for a freshen-up before he makes a likely return to contest the Gr.1 Barfoot and Thompson Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie on March 9.
“We have just put him in the paddock,” he said.
“He has been eating up since he’s been home. We’ll just see, but he has run well at Ellerslie so we’ll head towards the Auckland Cup all going well.”
Regency Legend continues unbeaten Hong Kong record
Regency Legend maintained his unbeaten Hong Kong record with a tough win under Zac Purton in the Class 2 Yuen Long Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
The exciting three-year-old conceded weight to all seven of his rivals but came out on top by a neck over Raging Blitzkrieg.
“In Class 2, carrying top-weight of 133(lb), it’s really hard, especially in Hong Kong,” trainer Danny Shum said.
“Now he’s won, he’ll go to the Class 1 where he won’t be carrying top-weight, and then we’ll give him two months off to refresh and we’ll see. We’ll let him relax a bit, so that he’s not so tight. There’s no rush with him.”
Regency Legend raced as Espumoso in New Zealand and was a two-time juvenile winner for Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.
Regency Legend was originally purchased at Karaka in 2017 by Pamsel Investments for $50,000 and is out of the unraced O’Reilly mare Sparkling.
A half-brother by Savabeel is catalogued as Lot 423 in the Waikato Stud draft of this week’s Book 1 session of New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales.
