Palmerston North trainers Kevin and Stephen Gray had a near perfect weekend, with four of their five runners collecting winner’s cheques.
Ready Response (Better Than Ready) was their sole representative at Hawera on Saturday. He ran third on debut at the track a fortnight ago and the father-and-son duo were confident he could go two better in the Canter 4 Cancer Maiden 1400, and he duly delivered, running out a one length victor over Amazing Son.
“He went well first-up and we just sent him back to where he ran well,” Stephen Gray said. “We knew he would improve, and he did. It was a very good ride by Bruno (Queiroz) to get him up.”
A day later, the Grays continued their perfect weekend run at Awapuni’s synthetic meeting where their highly fancied gelding Toronto (Vancouver) also broke through for his maiden win in the Sean Coleman Painting 1200.
Like Ready Response, Toronto ran third on debut, but at Awapuni, and the Grays elected to head back to the course with the five-year-old on Sunday and were rewarded.
The son of Vancouver had been in Stephen Grays care while he was training in Singapore, and he was delighted to get a winning result for his loyal owners, who elected to send the horse to New Zealand with Gray when racing ceased in the racing jurisdiction.
“He is a very nice horse. He won a trial impressively in Singapore and not long after that he hurt his tendon,” Gray said.
“He is owned by Mr Lim (Siah) and Paul Hickman, who were our two best clients during our time in Singapore.
“Paul Hickman was St George Stable and I think we trained 98 winners for him. Mr Lim’s stable was champion owner for many years. We trained many winners for him and actually took a horse to Royal Ascot for him called Lim’s Cruiser.
“When he (Toronto) hurt himself, we were going home and he said take him home and if he stands up in time race him and if not find a home for him.
“He is a lovely horse, and he can really gallop.”
In the following race, Our Akashinga (Exceedance) kept the stable’s winning run going when taking out the HR Jones & Co Ltd 1200, however, Queiroz had to call on all his skill to weave a passage along the rail to pip leader Knowledge Is Power at the post to score by a head.
“She was in a bad position, but she is a very promising mare, and I think she will get a mile and 2000m eventually. She has got a massive future,” Gray said.
Exaggeration (NZ) (Embellish) completed the stable hat-trick at the meeting when running over the top of his rivals to score his third win from four career starts in the Evans Henderson Woodbridge Barristers & Solicitors 1400.
“He is really impressive,” Gray said. “He is a beautiful horse that Mum and Dad bred. He has got a great future and he will get further.”
The Grays have utilised Awapuni’s synthetic track over winter and said it is a great tool to use over the wetter months.
“For Dad and I, we decided to run them on the all-weather instead of running them on the heavy tracks, which has allowed us to keep them in work, and they will go into spring for some nice grass racing,” Gray said.
