Category: Gallops

Trainer Dominic Sutton will keep an open mind on the program of Feroce (NZ) (Super Seth) until he assesses the gelding’s first-up run at Caulfield.  Last year’s Group 1 Australian Guineas winner is down to resume in the Group 3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes (1400m) on Saturday.  The gelding’s performance in his return run will determine the path Feroce takes.  Races like the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on February 21 and the Group 1 All-Star Mile (1600m) at Flemington next month are in the back of Sutton’s mind, as is the Group 2 Blamey Stakes (1600m) on February 28.  “We haven’t made any set plans. We want to see how…

Tajana (NZ) (Darci Brahma) is coming toward the sharp end of her season and co-trainer Shaune Ritchie is well-qualified to rate her chances of ending it on a high. The top-rated filly will attempt to add further winning momentum to her Classic campaign when she steps out in Saturday’s Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2100m) at Te Rapa. Ritchie has already won the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) with Jennifer Eccles (2020), Artistic (2012) and Keep The Peace (2010) and will bid for his first in the Al…

Barbara Kennedy is hoping she will be pouring more wine in celebration following Wingatui’s meeting on Saturday where the South Auckland trainer is seeking to score more southern stakes success. The expat South African is currently on her first South Island campaign, and she kicked it off with a bang when recording her first stakes win when Pour The Wine (NZ) (Telperion) powered away to a two-length victory in the Listed Timaru Stakes (1200m) at Riccarton a fortnight ago. “We didn’t expect her to win like that, but we are…

Still coming down from the high of taking out last weekend’s Gr.3 Wellington Cup (3200m), trainer Lisa Latta is hoping to quickly add to her stakes haul over the long weekend. Her first bid will be at Tauherenikau on Waitangi Day where last-start winner Connello (NZ) (Time Test) will contest the Listed Clubs NZ Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m). Bred and raced by Wairarapa local David Woodhouse, the Time Test four-year-old mare carries his silks, which are commonly associated with his former homebred dual Group One-winning mare Belclare. Connello has…

Longstanding vendors Highview who have been selling yearlings since 1986, have announced the staging of an Unreserved Deplenishing Sale at its Hamilton property on Sunday 15 March 2026.  NZB will conduct the Sale on-farm, which will offer approximately 50 lots consisting of yearlings, two-year-olds, racehorses, broodmares, mares with a foal at foot and more.  “There’s a changing of the guard at Highview, with my son Kurtis now taking a more prominent leadership role,” commented Highview’s Brent Gillovic.  “We’ve accumulated a lot of horses so this is a genuine reduction process to trim…

Fresh from claiming the title of leading buyer at Karaka for the 18th time, Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis is turning his attention to one of his highlights of the racing calendar at Te Rapa this Saturday. Both Ellis and his wife Karyn Fenton-Ellis are former chairs of the Waikato Racing Club, and Te Rapa’s Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) and Gr.1 BCD Group Sprint (1400m) raceday features a prestigious race named in honour of their contributions – the Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m). The $275,000…

0:00 /1:17 1×

The Lindsay Park stable is confident the Blue Diamond Stakes aspirations of two-year-old Eurocanto (Per Incanto) are back on track.  The Ben, Will and J D Hayes-trained two-year-old was sent back to the trials after being withdrawn from the Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield on January 24.  Eurocanto played up in the gates that day and was scratched at the barriers.  The colt required a veterinary clearance to be cleared to race again after the vets on race day deemed Eurocanto lame in the near foreleg, while stewards ordered the two-year-old to trial their satisfaction in a jump-out.  That jump-out occurred last…

The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr-trained Knobelas will tackle 2000m for the first time when she contests the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa on Saturday. The four-year-old daughter of Belardo is back campaigning in her country of birth and was unlucky not to have snared more of the $1 million prizemoney on offer when third in the Gr.3 Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie just under a fortnight ago. On that occasion Knobelas finished third to Tuxedo and Hinekaha, the latter whom she meets again…

El Vencedor has been given the green light to defend his title in the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at Te Rapa on Saturday. The reigning Horse of the Year, who completed a Group One weight-for-age hat-trick last autumn, has won just one of his seven starts this season and serious doubts about his future were raised when he faded badly to finish eighth in last Saturday’s Listed Fulton Family Stakes (1500m) at Ellerslie. At the time his trainer Stephen Marsh said that El Vencedor would back up in the…