Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images Palmerston North)
Ashley Meadows’ patient handling of The Scunner is bringing its rewards on the racetrack, with the exciting talent kicking off his six-year-old season with a runaway victory in the Cavallo Farms & Chris Rutten Bloodstock Handicap (1400m) at Otaki on Friday.
The $50,000 race was the fifth win from only a 13-start career for the Shamexpress gelding, who has now banked over $140,000 in stakes.
“He’s a really, really nice horse,” Meadows said.
“The ability has always been there. We’ve just given him that little bit of time to mature and develop, and he seems to have come back a different horse this time in.”
The Scunner debuted as a summer four-year-old and recorded a win and a placing from four starts in that 2023-24 season. He took a step forward at five, collecting three wins in an eight-start campaign that culminated with a 1600m Rating 75 success at Trentham in May.
Friday’s first-up assignment marked another big step up, tackling open company for the first time. The Scunner got in on the 54kg minimum weight and was sent out as a $4.60 second favourite with betting sites on the strength of a trial win at Foxton on September 16.
Jockey Samantha Collett slotted The Scunner into fifth spot through the first half of the race as Liquid Les and Turn The Ace duelled for the lead.
Collett allowed The Scunner to stride forward down the side of the track, and he cruised up alongside the leaders under his own steam.
The race was all over when Collett pushed the button in the straight. The Scunner dashed clear and opened up a winning margin of four and a half lengths over Turn The Ace and the late-finishing Enrico.
“I was really happy with everything he’d shown me this time in, and his trial on Tuesday last week was great, so I was expecting him to do something pretty good today,” Meadows said. “It was nice to see him deliver.”
The Scunner won a $65,000 race on New Zealand Cup Day in November of last year in his first and only look at Riccarton. Meadows has yet to commit to a return to that Christchurch carnival.
“I’ve got nothing set in stone as far as plans with him for this season are concerned,” the Awapuni trainer said.
“We’ll enjoy this win and let the dust settle, then decide where to head next.”
The Scunner was bred by Gloria Kenny and is out of the Diamond Express mare Miss Daphne, whose dam Miss Katella is a half-sister to Group One winner Gee I Jane and the stakes winner Miss Jessie Jay, who produced Group One winners Katie Lee and Banchee.
