Peter Brosnan brought up his century of winners in emphatic style last weekend at Te Rapa, and the Matamata horseman will head south on Sunday with a couple of key contenders in the Hawke’s Bay features at Woodville.
Brosnan was sitting on 99 wins heading into last Saturday’s Te Rapa meeting, and it wasn’t long before Squire (NZ) (Savile Row), who he trains in partnership with wife Jessica, scored a nine-length demolition of his rivals in the open hurdle.
He was rapt with the result, with the milestone coming as a nice bonus.
“I didn’t really know, Jess had said something a while back, but I didn’t take much notice at the time,” he said. “We were pretty surprised with how well he won, we always thought he was good, but on that run, he was very good.
“With all the young ones that we tried, you just hope they can show enough to be back in the team the next year, then in the second year they’re generally much better horses.
“This horse could be an exception, he seems to have adapted very quickly.”
Squire will back-up in the Te Whangai Romney’s Hawke’s Bay Hurdles (3000m) at Woodville on Saturday, while stablemate Jakama Krystal (NZ) (Jakkalberry), who won last Saturday’s Waikato Hunt Cup (3900m), takes on the Glenanthony Simmentals Stud Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m).
“Both of them haven’t done much this week, they’ll just have a trot around the farm or on the treadmill and have a swim,” he said. “Once they’re up and racing, we don’t do too much, we just try to keep them happy.
“Jakama Krystal is a tough little mare that doesn’t take a lot of work, and she’s bounced out of that race pretty well.
“I’ll leave it (tactics) to Kylan (Wiles, jockey), he’s the sort of jockey that can read a race pretty well, so I never give him too many instructions.”
The Brosnans will have a full truck heading to the Central Districts, and they are particularly looking forward to the return of Rocem in the Cody Singer Memorial (4000m) for maiden steeplechasers.
“She’s had a few little setbacks, that’s why she’s a bit late coming in,” he said. “We think she’s quite a talented horse, especially over the bigger fences.
Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)
“Last season we gave her a trial at Cambridge over the steeples and she really loved it. She’s had seven hurdle races and is looking like she needs those bigger fences now.”
Having initially ridden on the flat and over fences as an amateur, Brosnan entered the training ranks in the early 2000s, following in the footsteps of his parents, Sam and Marj Brosnan.
“Racing was pretty much bred into me,” he said. “Mum and Dad trained and had a stud farm, so we with the horses from day one and were going to the races all around the country every Saturday.
“I rode first as an amateur, I rode two winners in the amateurs and then three over jumps against the professionals. After Mum and Dad retired from training, I took over a few of their horses that they owned themselves and they always had jumpers.”
Brosnan celebrated his first feature success with Southern Countess, a talented hurdling mare who won three editions of the Tony Richards Toyota Hurdles (on Pakuranga Hunt Cup Day), as well as the 2011 running of the Great Northern Hurdle.
“She was a granddaughter of Our Countess, one of my parent’s horses, that ran second in a New Zealand Cup, third in a Wellington Cup, and won a Hawke’s Bay Cup and a few of those types of races,” he said.
“She liked Ellerslie, she won the hurdle on Pakuranga Day for three years in a row, was third in her first year in the Great Northern, then won the second year, and was second in the third year.
“She did well to keep racing as long as she did, she had a high cruising speed and seemed to suit hurdling.”
Brosnan accumulated 44 winners as a trainer before being joined in partnership by Jessica at the commencement of the 2015/16 season, and the couple balance their contracting business with breaking in, pre-training and training horses, predominately jumpers.
Last term, their promising steeplechasers Ima Wonder and Auld Jock asserted themselves in open company, with the former winning the Pakuranga Hunt Cup (4800m) and the latter placing in the Grand National Steeplechase (5600m) and Great Northern Steeplechase (6400m).
“I’ve had a few horses come in along the way, and we still break in quite a few and do pre-training,” he said. “We do some for Graham Richardson, Kylie Fawcett and Raymond Connors, and then there has been a few more in-between, I’ve always done Cliff Goss’ horses, getting them educated and generally trialled for him.
“In the summer, we have a contracting business, so we try not to have too many over that period.
“I like the jumpers, it’s a bit more hands-on and you spend a bit more time with them, getting to know them individually. When it goes well, it’s a lot of fun.
“I like the mares as well, I think they’re a bit harder to get your head around, but when they come right they can be very good.
“Auld Jock will always have a special place, and Old Countess was a good mare, we had a lot of fun with her. She won four of her five starts in steeplechases at Wanganui and raced in quite a few of the big races.
“Ima Wonder is one of our favourite horses and Mrs (Ann) Browne (owner) has been such a big help to us, I often ask her for advice. We’re generally on the same page, but her advice is very good.”
In recent years, the Brosnans have opened their gates to the jumping community with schooling days, with fences they developed on the property during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Jess and I bought this property off my parents, we’ve been here for about 20 years,” he said.
“Over COVID, we couldn’t get the horses out to be schooled and it’s always hard to get jockeys, so we thought if we could get our own jumps here, we could do that ourselves and it works well.
“We had the first jumping school about four or five years ago, they’ve become quite popular and so many horses have come through those days. In the second year, Abu Dhabi came through the jumping school and he went on to win the Northern.
“Raymond’s horse, Our Daymo, came up and got his ticket and trialled, and he won his first hurdle start at Wellington.”