An exciting match-up between champion jumper West Coast and rising star Jesko is imminent, but the former’s trainer Mark Oulaghan is sticking with the old firm for the time being, with Shaun Fannin in the saddle in Sunday’s Glenanthony Simmentals Stud Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m) at Woodville.
Fannin, who trains Jesko in partnership with his wife Hazel Fannin, is the regular rider of both mounts, but Jesko will bypass the Woodville meeting, and Oulaghan opted for the familiarity and experience Fannin provides on the son of Mettre En Jeu.
“Shaun’s on for Sunday, but we’re a little bit up in the air at the moment as to what we’ll do if that does happen (lining up at against Jesko),” he said. “We’ve got a couple of options, but we’re just going to get through Sunday and take it from there.
“He knows the horse very well steeplechasing, so he will be able to give us a fair opinion on how he’s going.”
West Coast will have his fourth attempt at the Hawke’s Bay feature, having finished third, first, and second in his respective efforts thus far.
This year’s edition is his first start over the bigger fences since completing the Grand National-Great Northern Steeplechase double last season, and Oulaghan is pleased with his progress in the lead-up.
“I know he was back in the field the other day, but from a jumpers point of view, he was pretty good,” he said. “We intended to ride him quietly and he drifted a long way off them, but he was plodding along well at the finish, which is what we look at. I was quite happy with that.
“We try to pick out four or five harder races for him per year, and that way we can look after him and he can carry on for a wee while.”
Oulaghan is looking forward to having another of his big guns back at the races in Berry The Cash, who has been equally as dominant over hurdles in the past couple of seasons.
The two-time Grand National Hurdles (4200m) winner ventured across the Tasman earlier in the autumn, finishing fourth in the Brierly Steeplechase (3450m) and Grand Annual Steeplechase (5500m), and he made an impressive return on home soil when finishing third in a Rating 75 mile contest on Tuesday at Otaki.
The meeting had initially been scheduled to run on Saturday, but the delay was of no concern to Oulaghan.
“Being a jumper and an older horse, it wasn’t too much of a panic,” he said. “We were happy with the run, he’s one of those horses that always puts his best foot forward and he got to the line well in trying conditions.
“I think taking a line through that condition-wise, he was pretty good.”
The son of Jakkalberry will shoot for back-to-back titles in the Te Whangai Romneys Hawke’s Bay Hurdle (3100m), having won last year’s edition when run at Hastings.
“It’s his first jumping start for a while so he may just need it a little bit, but getting a good run into him, he should be pretty right by the time we take him down south,” Oulaghan said. “He’ll line up on both days down there.”
Oulaghan is referring to the Avon City Ford Sydenham Hurdles (3100m), run on the 2nd of August at Riccarton, before chasing a three-peat in the National seven days later.
On the card entirely made up of jumps, amateur rider and highweight races, Oulaghan will have two other runners competing on the flat, including stable newcomer The Ugly Sister.
The Tivaci mare won four races in the care of Kurtis and Paul Pertab and was later purchased by Novara Park principal Luigi Muollo as a broodmare prospect. After assessing her stellar heavy track form, Muollo decided to send her to the Awapuni horseman in the interim, and she will appear fresh-up in the Farmlands Pahiatua and Mitchpine (1600m).
“She was sold by her original owner and Luigi Muollo bought her, with the idea of breeding from her,” Oulaghan said. “But she handles wet ground pretty well, so he decided to give her a few more starts through this period and she’ll probably be served later in the season.
“She’s a funny sort of mare but gallops well in heavy ground, as shown in her record. She’s a grinding staying sort of mare, so we’ll see what she does on Sunday.”