.jpg)
News In Brief
Shadows Cast Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images)
Season finale for Shadows Cast
Thursday’s Listed Manawatu ITM Anzac Mile (1600m) at Awapuni looms as the final run for the season for Group One winner Shadows Cast.
Trainer Mark Oulaghan believes the son of Per Incanto is in good order ahead of the assignment and will have no issue with his allotted top-weight.
“He’s got 60kgs and the bottom weight has got 53kgs, so it is a seven kilo spread but I don’t think that will be a huge burden for him,” Oulaghan said.
“He ran in the race last year carrying 60kgs and just got beaten.”
It has been more than a month between runs for Shadows Cast who finished a well-beaten eighth behind Melody Belle in the Gr.1 New Zealand Stakes (2000m) on a heavy track at Ellerslie last start before an aborted southern mission.
“We probably should have scratched him at Ellerslie,” Oulaghan said.
“We wanted to run him over 2000m, but it was a heavy track and we probably rode him a bit wrong and it was just a culmination of things. It was his first time right hand going.
“He seems well at the moment, but we took him down to Riccarton with the idea of running him there (in the Listed Easter Cup (1600m)) and it rained and was a soft or heavy track so we had to scratch him and bring him home.
“He just hasn’t had much luck with tracks. It’s just the way it panned out.”
Oulaghan is hoping for a better surface for Thursday’s Feilding meeting which is conducted on his home track at Awapuni.
“We kept him going with the hope we would get a half reasonable track here and it looks as though we are going to (Dead6 on Tuesday). We will run him on Thursday and that will be his season.”
Meanwhile, the Awapuni conditioner has some progressive gallopers on the undercard.
“I think Don't Know Jakk is a good little potential staying horse and in a Rating 65 field he will be competitive,” Oulaghan said.
“We’ve got a maidener in (Semper Magico) which I think goes pretty good too. He’s a handy little horse.”
Jump out for Generation
Star New Zealand-bred galloper Beauty Generation will jump out of the starting gate on Thursday morning when he has his final pre-race fast work ahead of the Gr.1 Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Trainer John Moore is keen to switch on his stable star into what will be his eighth race of an unbeaten campaign which began in October.
“He’ll jump out of the gates, which isn’t usual for him,” Moore said.
“He’s been up a long time and we noticed last season that he was a little lethargic out of the gates at the back end, so the jump out should sharpen him,” he said.
The son of Road To Rock cruised to victory in the Gr.2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) 15 days ago but Moore has been tweaking the preparations to lift his star to a peak for this weekend’s Grand Final.
“We’ve increased his workload a little bit since his last run to make sure he’s very sharp on the day. He’s just so durable and he’s coping with all of it. The programme here dictates when he runs but the races are so spaced that it works in his favour.”
The six-year-old, the co-top rated horse in the world at present, is bidding for a second successive win in the Champions Mile.
Metropolitan success for Savabeel 4YOs
The Mick Price-trained Savaheat made light work of his rivals at Sandown on Easter Monday winning the Le Pine Funerals Handicap (1800m).
Ridden by Damien Oliver, the four-year-old gelding by Savabeel travelled nicely at the rear of the field before making his move with 800m to go. He looped the field and hit the lead at the 500m mark and held off his challengers to win by a length from Tavirun.
“It was a good win,” stable representative Mick Nolan said.
“The 1800m suits him. The way the race was run suited him and he was going to be hard to beat in the straight home.”
It was the third win for the $220,000 graduate of Trelawney Stud’s 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock yearling draft, and the first for the Price stable since transferring from Darren Weir.
“This is probably his grade but with a bit of maturity he might get better,” Nolan said.
“He is suited to these type of races. He is a fairly easy horse to train with no problems or issues.”
Meanwhile, in Sydney the Bryce Heys-trained Subban, also by New Zealand’s champion sire Savabeel, notched his fifth win from 11 starts when successful over 1800m.
Hong Kong win for O’Sullivan brothers
Band Of Brothers, registered his second straight win over the Sha Tin 1400m on Monday and his second from just three starts in Hong Kong after being sourced in New Zealand.
“He is a promising type of horse and he’ll get further than this,” trainer Paul O’Sullivan said.
“We’ll probably go to 1600m next time and he’ll be up to Class 3 but he’ll drop in weight with that rise in grade and he won well today. He copped a bit of a buffeting and overcame that.”
The aptly named four-year-old son of Sakhee’s Secret began his training with O’Sullivan’s brother Lance, in New Zealand, as many of his stablemates have done.
“He didn’t go through a yearling sale so I’m not sure what happened there,” Paul O’Sullivan said of the Kevin Hickman-bred galloper. “They gave him to Lance to prepare him with a view to selling.
“I saw him last July and really liked him. He won a trial over there very easily. Have a good look at him, he’s a smashing type and fortunately I had a group of owners here with a PPG permit so we were able to secure him,” O’Sullivan said.
The gelding is raced by the Z Power Syndicate and was ridden by champion jockey Zac Purton.
61 for Mastercraftsman
Former shuttle stallion Mastercraftsman was yesterday provided with his 61st stakes winner courtesy of Agente Segreto’s victory in the Listed Emanuele Filiberto (2000m) in Milan.
The three-year-old colt, who was last seen winning the Premio Razza di Vedano (2000m), continued that good form, beating Thunderman into second.
Mastercraftsman, who stood at Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge for four seasons, now stands exclusively at Coolmore Stud in Ireland for a fee of €30,000 and his progeny is headed by 12 Group One winners.
