Stakes targets are in the offing for Te Aroha mare Debit (NZ) (Darci Brahma), with trainer Peter Lock impressed with the way she has returned this year.
The five-year-old daughter of Darci Brahma had a perfect spring preparation last year, winning all three of her starts, extending her envious record to four wins and a placing from five career starts.
Lock elected to bring her south to the Foxton trials on Tuesday, along with a couple of stablemates, and he was pleased with the way she went, finishing fourth in her 1000m heat after initially set to trial over 800m.
“We raced at Awapuni the other day and we thought we would bring the three open handicappers down for a trip away,” Lock said.
“We are very happy with Debit, she is twice as big and strong as last year. We were just going to give her a quiet 800m trial but they cancelled it, so she had to go 1000m, and she wasn’t quite ready to go 1000m.
“I told Chris Dell (jockey) once he has gone half a mile just sit up on her, which he did, he never moved on her and she coasted to the line. He said she felt brilliant, but had a big blow and she will improve a tonne off that run. She has pulled up well.”
Lock has enjoyed the thrill of racing Debit with his good friends and clients Rod Conning and Trevor Sargent, and he is hoping they can add some valuable black-type to her record in the coming months.
“We raced the mother and bred this mare. It makes it a little bit more special and we are all pretty excited,” Lock said.
“She will go back and have another trial and then she will be all set and ready to go.
“I would love to have a crack at the Foxbridge Plate (Gr.2, 1200m) at Te Rapa. Our main plan is to have a crack at that race first and we hope to have her hard and fit by then.”
Lock’s colours featured prominently later in the day at Foxton, with Footloose (NZ) (Turn Me Loose) and Baderingdawitness (NZ) (Reliable Man) distancing their rivals in their 1200m, and they are now set to return to the Central Districts to kick-off their respective campaigns.
“The two boys will probably head to Hawera in two weeks for a rating 75 1400m and a rating 65 1400m,” Lock said. “I couldn’t have been happier with what they did today.”
Lock also shares in the ownership of fellow Foxton trialler Lady Blanche (NZ) (Churchill), who was having her first trial at Foxton for his daughter Casey Lock, and the pair were rapt with her placing in her 1200m heat.
“Casey and I race her in partnership, and she was very good,” Lock said. “She has had a few jumpouts at home she has come through everything well.
“It was her first start at the trials, so we decided to come down here for a trip away.
“She is a half-sister to Viktor Vegas (who Casey trained to win the Gr.3 Waikato Cup, 2400m), so Casey is very excited. She just loves the horses and treats them like one of the family. If she is as half as good as Viktor Vegas, I said to her she will have a lot of fun.”
Meanwhile, Lock is also excited about the prospects of a couple well-related youngsters to his former stable stars.
“I have got a really nice half-brother to (Group One performer) Hiflyer for Cambridge Stud called Akehurst,” Lock said. “I was very lucky to get him and he goes really well. He is a Tarzino horse and is an absolute cracker.
“The other one I really like is a two-year-old full-brother to the good Per Incanto mare I had called Faithful Feat. He has just come back into work and he is in absolute machine, I think he is as good as her, if not better. He is an absolutely magnificent specimen of a horse, and he can really gallop.”