Father-and-son training duo Kevin and Stephen Gray finished the Wellington Cup meeting with a bang on Saturday when their gelding Anderson Bridge (NZ) (Savabeel) surged to victory in the Douro Cup (1600m).
Race favourite Afternoon Siesta jumped well and was sent straight to the front by jockey Kelly Myers, while Bruno Queiroz was content to settle three-back in the running line aboard Anderson Bridge.
They loomed three-wide at the turn and quickly ranged up alongside the leader, with the pair going head-to-head in the concluding stages, but it was Anderon Bridge who came out on top to win by a long neck.
“He is a really promising horse, he beat a good mare,” Stephen Gray said. “We had the (1kg) weight advantage and I said to Bruno that he had to be forward and just attack her because she is a good mare.
“He is a really promising horse, so I am excited to have him back.”
Gray purchased Anderson Bridge as a yearling in Australia in 2022 for $200,000 while he was still training in Singapore, and entrusted him to the care of leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller.
The son of Savabeel won one start for the expat Kiwi horseman before returning to Gray’s care in New Zealand last year, and the Manawatu trainer has been rapt with his progression.
The five-year-old gelding won first-up over 1400m at Trentham in December before returning to the Upper Hutt track a fortnight ago to run fifth over the same distance, and bounced back to winning form when stepping up to a mile on Saturday.
“He came back from Sydney, and it is only his third run back, so he is only getting better,” Gray said.
Gray was also chuffed to record another victory in the Douro Cup alongside his father, while he said the win was a tonic for his Palmerston North-based team.
“To win a Douro Cup, which I think I won a long time ago with Dad, and to still win it with Dad is pretty cool,” Gray said.
“We run second enough, so when you win one it is exciting. We have had a tough couple of weeks where the horses have been going well, we just quite haven’t got the wins, so it is good for the staff at home and good for my mates who own him.
“Paul Hickman, my best mate, owns most of him. We had 98 winners together in Singapore.”
The win also extended jockey Bruno Queiroz’s golden run in New Zealand, with the Brazilian hoop currently fifth on the New Zealand Jockeys’ Premiership on 42 wins for the season, and Gray said the 24-year-old has a bright future.
“Bruno is a hugely intelligent rider who will be a very good rider wherever he goes,” Gray said. “He is only young and he is riding much better, he is learning as he goes and it was a beautiful ride.”