Hastings-trained horses had another stellar day on the Wanganui track last Monday, winning three of the eight races on the programme.
It was a repeat of the last Wanganui race meeting, held on March 14, when Hastings horses also took out three of the eight races.
On that day one of the winners was the Patrick-Campbell Say I Do and the Pierro mare completed a winning double on the track when taking out another Rating 65 race over 1600m on Monday.
The John Bary stable provided the other two Hastings winners on Monday, with Mr Bombasa breaking through for a maiden win over 1200m and Pacific Princess making up for some recent unlucky runs with a decisive victory in the Rating 65 event over 2040m.
Mr Bombasa was a bargain buy for John Bary, who paid just $1000 for the horse off the Gavelhouse auction site.
“The reason I bought him is because he is out of Miss Labasa, who was a good mare I used to train and I thought he’d be a good trade horse,” Bary said this week.
“I’ve given a 10 per cent share in him to Les Titter, who raced horses with me a few years ago when he lived in Hawke’s Bay and now lives in Fiji.”
Mr Bombasa was having his third start when he lined up on Monday, following sixth placings at Wanganui in February and at Waverley last month.
“To be honest the start before Monday was not a good ride and he should have finished a lot closer,” Bary added.
Apprentice Jim Chung was aboard Mr Bombasa on Monday and settled the horse midfield in the early running before improving to be within striking distance of the leaders coming to the home turn.
The horse had trouble getting a clear run early in the home straight but once Chung angled him down to the inside rail he flashed home to score a nose victory over Gitano.
Mr Bombasa is a three-year-old colt by Banquo out of the Swiss Ace mare Miss Labasa, who was the winner of six races from the Bary stable and placed fifth in the 2019 running of the Group 2 Lowland Stakes (2100m) at Hastings.
Pacific Princess brought up only her second win from 23 starts when successful on Monday but has also recorded five seconds and two thirds and is a mare who has been plagued by bad luck.
She finished a close second, beaten a nose, over 2100m at Otaki in January and should have finished a lot closer in each of her three starts since.
At Trentham on January 31 she got held up for most of the home straight over 2100m and then, at Wanganui on February 22, she was caught three-wide without cover for the entire race. Her last start sixth was over 2200m at Waverley on March 18 where she again had difficulty finding clear racing room in the home straight.
Talented apprentice Elen Nicholas was having her first ride on Pacific Princess on Monday and settled the mare at the back, in a strung out field, with plenty of pace on in the first 1600m.
The field started to become more compact coming to the home turn and Nichloas was able to pinch runs between horses to close on the leaders. She then angled her mount to the centre of the track and she finished strongly to win by 1-1/2 lengths.
Pacific Princess is owned by Waipukurau’s Wayne Chittick in partnership with his son and daughter-in-law, Brad and Hannah, his Hastings-based brother Allen and their cousin Garry Chittick from Waikato Stud.
The five-year-old was bred by the Chitticks and descends from a family they have bred and raced horses from for decades.
She is by the Waikato Stud-based stallion Ocean Park out of the Savabeel mare Savarose while her grandam was the Balmerino mare Longlands.
Savarose only won race but is also the dam of the four-race winner Lilly Laguna and has also left Savachi Boy, a Tivaci three-year-old who finished second over 1200m at Wanganui as a two-year-old last season and came from a long way back on the home turn to finish fourth over 1340m there on Monday.
Say I Do is also proving a bargain buy from the Gavelhouse auction site for the Hastings duo of trainer Patrick Campbell and Dene Smith.
Campbell purchased the horse for just $4500 from Gavelhouse last year after she had recorded a win and a third from John Bary’s stable.
Campbell has since lined the horse up 14 times for two wins, three seconds and five fourths and she has won him and Smith more than $53,000 in stakemoney.
Jockey Mareana Hudson is building a good association with Say I Do and has been aboard her in her last four starts for two wins, a second and a fourth.
She bounced the mare out quickly from the barrier on Monday before getting her to settle outside the leader Glimmer.
Say I Do moved up to challenge for the lead rounding the home bend and shot to the front soon after. The well supported runners Jaeger and Inchigeelagh Lass started to lodge a challenge inside the last 200m but Say I Do showed plenty of determination to hold on and win by a neck.
Say I Do is by Pierro out of the Commands mare Wedding and descends from the family of the good racemare Love Dance, whose wins included the 1996 Group 1 Kelt Capital Stakes (2040m) at Hastings.
Positive signs after Hastings jumpouts
A successful set of jumpouts were held on the newly renovated Hastings racetrack on Tuesday.
There were 13 heats run up against the inside rail on the course proper, which provided soft footing following 8.5mm of rain last weekend and a further 2.5mm on Monday night.
Sixty-one horses contested the heats in what was the first set of jumpouts to be held on the track since it underwent an extensive renovation, which included the re-cambering of three of the bends.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, the Racing Integrity Board, Hawke’s Bay Racing Inc., track consultant Liam O’Keeffe and senior riders were present.
Senior riders, including Jonathan Riddell, Kate Hercock and Leah Hemi, provided positive feedback following the session and reported no movement or issues with the surface. The horses’ hooves were going into the ground but there was no evidence of any slipping.
An official set of trials will now be staged on the Hastings track on Tuesday, April 28, where the inside running rail will be moved out five metres to test the full width of the track.
A return to racing is then planned for Thursday, May 21, where there will be a six-race meeting.
Ka Ying Rising makes it 19 wins on end
Zac Purton and David Hayes were left scrambling for adequate superlatives after Kiwi-bred sprinting sensation Ka Ying Rising continued an imperious reign with a phenomenal display of speed and power to win the Group 2 Sprint Cup (1200m) on Monday, notching a fourth Sha Tin track record with a record-extending 19th successive victory.
Breaking the Sha Tin 1200m mark for the third time with a searing gallop of 1m 07.12s – despite running the first 300m of the race into the teeth of blustery southerly wind and being eased down late – Ka Ying Rising conceded 5lb to six rivals before sweeping to a 4-1/4 length margin over Helios Express and Raging Blizzard.
Continuing an amazing season, Ka Ying Rising followed his record-breaking gallop of 1m 19.36s in the Group 1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) on February 22 with an equally extraordinary effort, prompting Purton to describe the display as “right up there” with the finest of the five-year-old’s towering performances.
Settling second behind Stellar Express, Ka Ying Rising clocked 21.47s between the 800m and 400m with successive splits of 10.75s and 10.72s before Purton asked the world’s highest-rated horse in 2026 to lengthen stride.
Responding with a scorching 10.45s burst to the 300m, Ka Ying Rising spreadeagled the field to lead by almost 10 lengths before Purton allowed the gelding to cruise to the line over the final 100m, improving his overall record to 20 wins from 22 starts.
Wet track thwarted Kiwi’s Derby hopes
New Zealand Derby winner Road To Paris, who finished seventh in last Saturday’s Australian Derby (2400m) in Sydney, returned to New Zealand on Tuesday and will now enjoy a well-deserved spell.
The Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained son of Circus Maximus was unsuited by the very soft track conditions according to rider Zac Purton.
Although beaten on this occasion, the Cambridge training partnership will be back in Sydney soon enough with last-start Group 1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) heroine She’s A Dealer to target some Australian black-type.
“All going well, she is going to go across for a run in a Group 3 race at Randwick on April 18, the Japan Racing Association Plate (2000m),” James said.
Lightly tried five-year-old Sweynesday is another from the stable also being readied for Australian targets.
The winner of six of his 10 starts to date, Sweynesday was a last-start winner of the King’s Plate (1200m) on Champions Day at Ellerslie, having previously been placed in the Group 1 Railway Stakes (1200m) behind Jigsaw.
“He will go through Sydney, probably have a run in the Takeover Target (Listed, 1200m) at Gosford on the way as a lead-up run to the Stradbroke Handicap (Group 1, 1400m) in Brisbane,” James said..
“I think the Stradbroke is an ideal race for him. Talking to the handicapper he is going to get in with around 51 kilos, so 1400m and that sort of weight, it just looks a good race for him.”