Triple Group One winning sprinter Start Wondering has been retired after suffering a minor tendon strain. 

 

Prepared in Wanganui by Evan and JJ Rayner, the eight-year-old won 11 of 29 starts, including back to back editions of the Gr.1 Waikato Sprint (1400m) and the 2017 Gr.1 Railway (1200m).

 

Initially prepared by Paul Belsham, Start Wondering enjoyed a stint across the Tasman with Chris Waller, where he won three races in Sydney before joining the Rayners after a bleed. 

 

Under the Rayners guidance, Start Wondering was voted New Zealand’s Champion Sprinter for season 2016/17.

 

“He’s still at our place but he is out in the back paddock and we are really trying to find a good home for him,” Evan Rayner said. 

 

“He had a little bit of filling in a tendon and we scanned him and he had a black spot on the tendon and straight away we knew he had a bit of a strain there and we decided to retire him. 

 

“He had a hell of a lot of ability and once he settled, he ran the races out pretty well.”

 

The retirement of the star sprinter has also proved the impetus for trainer Evan Rayner to hang up his stopwatch, with daughter JJ to take sole charge of the stable. 

 

“At the end of March, the end of the financial year, I will hand it over to JJ, but I will still be around. But I won’t renew my licence,” said Rayner, who has been training since 1969. 

 

 

Jockey Christopher Dell has been confirmed as the rider of Gr.2 Avondale Cup (2400m) runner-up Blue Breeze when he contests the Gr.1 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup (3200m) on March 9.

 

The Allan Morley-trained five-year-old was sent out a $57-chance but was beaten just a half-head by high-class staying mare Glory Days last Saturday. 

 

“He had a stout finish on Saturday and stepping up to the 3200m, he will just keep going and going and going,” Dell said. 

 

“He does appreciate a little bit of cut in the track, but he has performed well on all track surfaces.”

 

Under the set weight and penalties conditions of the Auckland Cup, Blue Breeze will carry 55kgs, a 3kg rise from the 52kgs he carried under handicap conditions last week. 

 

“The owners said to me ‘You won’t have to waste as hard to ride him the Auckland Cup’,” Dell said. 

 

“Glory Days is obviously coming in better off at the weights, but anything can happen over 3200m.”

 

Dell and Byerley Park trainer Morley have had a long association which started in another equine discipline. 

 

“He used to judge me in the show ring,” Dell said. We have known each other for years.”