Bill Thurlow endured his share of trials and tribulations with Whangaehu before the stayer’s latest show of form at Ellerslie.
The Waverley trainer, who operates in partnership with Sam O’Malley, was delighted with the son of Proisir’s effort on Saturday to finish third over 2200m.
Whangaehu came from the back of the field with a stout run under 61kg, conceding seven kilos to the Stephen Marsh pair of Sinhaman and Kiwi Skyhawk.
“Hopefully, we’ve got him back where he should be and it hasn’t been easy, so we were very happy with him,” Thurlow said.
That performance elevated the seven-year-old to an $8 second favourite for next month’s Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m).
“It’s working out well and we’ll be trying to get him to the Cup. He’ll go to the Avondale Cup (Gr.3, 2400m) next, so he’s going to have to go to Ellerslie three times,” Thurlow said.
“It’s a lot of travelling from where we’re based, but there’s no good lead-up races down here. It’s just the way the calendar is.”
It will be Whangaehu’s second crack at the Cup after he finished seventh in the 2024 edition.
“He went quite a good race, but he was a bit sharper and keener then and he’s got more dour since,” Thurlow said.
Whangaehu was second-up in his preparation on Saturday after two unplaced efforts during the spring.
“We thought we had him not far away, but he wasn’t quite clicking and not clearing the gates very well,” Thurlow said.
“When we looked back at his races, they were over a mile and he’s never been a horse that’s been able to jump and sprint away from the gates.
“He needs time to get into his rhythm and when you get up in grade in those mile races on good tracks they do jump and run but then put the brakes on and a horse like him gets flat-footed and makes it quite difficult.”
Whangaehu’s return to form was encouraging on a bittersweet day for the stable after Field Of Gold was pulled up in the Douro Cup (1600m) at Trentham and subsequently humanely euthanised.
“It was very said, he was just an absolute gem of a horse,” Thurlow said.
“He was another one we thought we had got right. He was really working so well and then that happened, it was a great shame for everyone.”
Field Of Gold was successful on four occasions, including victory in the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (2000m) and placed in the Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m), Gr.2 Auckland Guineas (1600m) and Gr.3 War Decree Stakes (1600m) when trained by Tony Pike.
He subsequently joined Thurlow as an older horse to add to his winning record and more recently finished in behind the major players in the Gr.2 Manawatu Challenge Stakes (1400m) and Gr.3 Phar Lap Trophy (1600m).