Hastings trainer John Bary’s winning roll continued last weekend when he picked up another two winners, including one at odds of 45 to one.
Bary produced Vickezzmargaux to score a well deserved maiden win at Otaki on Friday and the following day he took out the final race at Trentham with Party Rocking.
The two wins followed the winning double Bary achieved when Psyclone and Afternoon Siesta won consecutive races at Tauherenikau on December 10.
To win four races in the space of 10 days, with four individual horses, is an impressive strike-rate for a trainer that only has 16 horses in work at the moment, after scaling down his training operation in recent times.
Vickezzmargaux started a $2.90 favourite in the maiden 2100m race at Otaki and was coming off a last start third over 2040m at Tauherenikau at the end of last month.
The Eminent five-year-old settled midfield on the rails in the early stages before jockey Kelly Myers managed to move her away from the fence and improve approaching the home turn.
Vickezzmargaux was the widest runner entering the home straight and maintained a strong finish, down centre track, to win by half a length from Malibu.
Although it was Vickezzmargaux’s first win, it was only her 15th race start, with her previous 14 outings resulting in a second and two thirds.
The mare is owned by his Cambridge breeder Tony Rider and is out of the Don Eduardo mare Vickezzchardonnay, who won five races for Rider when trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman.
Bary said Vickezzmargaux has been a slow maturer and that they have had to be very patient with her.
“It’s great to win one for Tony and it’s the only one I’m training for him,” Bary said.
“He had a good younger half-sister to this mare that died and their mother also died about the same time so he is hoping this one can carry on the breed.”
Bary certainly rocked the punters when Party Rocking scored at odds of 45 to one in a $40,000 Rating 75 race over 1200m at Trentham last Saturday.
The five-year-old Belardo gelding had been mixing his form in recent starts but Bary was surprised he was at such long odds, especially as he was a four-race winner and only one other horse in the race had more wins on the board.
“I had a bet on him because I knew the horse was fit and well and, if he could get control, he’d be hard to beat,” Bary said.
“He can be a little bit quirky but, when he is on, he can run really good times.”
Party Rocking clocked 1:09.0 for the 1200m race down the Trentham chute and scored a decisive length victory.
Apprentice rider Jim Chung was the successful rider and has built up a great association with the horse, partnering him in four of his five wins.
Chung bounced Party Rocking out quickly from the barrier and they disputed the pace outside the well supported Lucullan until the home turn.
Party Rocking then took over early in the home straight and kept up a strong run to the line.
Bary had two horses in the race and almost took out the quinella with stablemate Debbi Harri finishing third, only a head behind second placed Oneira.
Party Rocking was having his 24th start and now has a record of five wins, three seconds and a third.
Bary purchased the gelding for $42,000 from the 2022 Karaka yearling sales and has retained a share.
Another Hawke’s Bay man, Tim Gillespie, also shares in the ownership along with four of Bary’s Australian friends, two of whom also shared in the multiple Group 1 winner Callsign Mav from the Bary stable.
Bary now has a Group 1 assignment in mind for Party Rocking, with the horse nominated for the $550,000 TAB Telegraph Sprint (1200m) at Trentham on January 3.
He is presently the rank outsider at odds of $81.00 on the futures market for the weight-for-age feature but Bary is undaunted by that.
“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve trained an 80 to one shot to win a Group 1 race,” he quipped, alluding to the fact that Callsign Mav paid $82.60 when winning the Group 1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m) at Hastings in September 2020.
“If he (Party Rocking) doesn’t measure up in the Telegraph we can always drop back to another Rating 75 race somewhere,” Bary added.
Bary’s next runner will be Blissful Belle in the $30,000 Open 1400m sprint at Taupo this Sunday and hopes his winning run can continue.
A mixed result for Guy Lowry
Hastings trainer Guy Lowry had mixed fortunes in the opening race at last Friday’s Otaki meeting.
Lowry and his training partner Leah Zydenbos lined up Sol De Otono in the 1600m maiden event and the horse was sent out a $3.60 favourite on the back of five minor placings from 11 starts.
The five-year-old daughter of The Autumn Sun looked the likely winner too when clear in the lead inside the last 200 metres but was caught in the last couple of strides by the outsider Pinker and went down by a neck.
Ironically, Pinker is owned by Guy Lowry and the four-year-old had his first three starts from the Lowry/Zydenbos stable before he was transferred to Wanganui trainer Kevin Myers after finishing last of 14 runners over 1300m at Taupo in October.
Myers had given the horse one barrier trial, for a second over 1200m at Foxton on December 16, to fit him for his fresh up assignment.
McDonald’s only one ride at Trentham
No-one knows better than Lance O’Sullivan what it takes to win the Group 1 TAB Telegraph (1200m), which is as good a recommendation as any around the engagement of James McDonald for Tomodachi in the Trentham Group 1 sprint.
During O’Sullivan’s exceptional jockey career, encompassing 12 premierships and 62 Group One wins in his homeland as well as international majors for a career tally of 2479, the Telegraph stands out like a beacon.
O’Sullivan rode the winner of the famous Trentham sprint a record six times and last January he joined his father Dave and brother Paul on the trainers’ honour roll with Grail Seeker.
On January 3 he and Wexford Stables partner Andrew Scott will have a two-pronged attack on the 2026 edition of the Telegraph with Grail Seeker set to be joined by Tomodachi.
The latter firmed to $3.80 favouritism following last weekend’s announcement that McDonald will make a special trip to Trentham to ride her in the $550,000 feature, while Grail Seeker shares the second line with Crocetti at $5.
Coming up 14 years ago, McDonald added the Telegraph to his growing list of big wins when he combined with Guiseppina to down the Australian raiders Atomic Force and Nash Rawiller.
Like all others trained by Stephen Ramsay and Julia Ritchie, Guiseppina raced in the royal blue and white hooped colours of her breeder Sir Peter Vela, which is the common thread leading to McDonald’s engagement for Tomodachi.
“The booking was made by Sir Peter’s racing manager Gary Cossey and we were very happy to receive confirmation,” O’Sullivan said this week.
“James is obviously a world class jockey, he knows how to win the Telegraph, and for our part Tomodachi is right on target, so hopefully it will all come together with the right result.”
Joe Doyle has been confirmed to ride the defending Telegraph title-holder Grail Seeker.
McDonald last rode in New Zealand almost two years ago, when he claimed the Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m) and 3YO (1600m) double on Velocious and Orchestral.
More recently, before another Hong Kong stint, he signed off a productive Australian spring carnival on the final day of Melbourne Cup week when completing a Melbourne Group 1 double on Via Sistina.
Having already claimed his fourth consecutive Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) and his second on the Chris Waller-trained mare, he and the champion expat trainer combined for their 50th Group 1 together with Via Sistina in the Champions Stakes (2000m) at Flemington.
McDonald’s Hong Kong stint ended last Saturday with a double at Sha Tin, taking his tally there for the season to date to 13 wins from 84 rides, with his mounts’ combined earnings of HK$47 million placing him second to resident champion Zac Purton.
Having been awarded his third World’s Best Jockey trophy at the start of the Longines Hong Kong International meeting, McDonald combined with local champion Romantic Warrior for a record fourth consecutive victory in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m).
A commitment to that world record stake-earner for his next Hong Kong start will prevent McDonald from attending next month’s Karaka Millions meeting at Ellerslie. However his single-race cameo appearance at Trentham on January 3 is bound to draw an audience befitting the occasion.
Three slots taken up for NZB Kiwi
Last month’s $600,000 Group 1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) is proving to be the early form race for the $4 million NZB Kiwi (1500m), with runner-up Lollapalooza announced as the third confirmed runner for the Champions Day feature on March 7.
The Graham Richardson and Rogan Norvall-trained filly will join 1000 Guineas winner Well Written and Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) winner Romanoff, in the southern hemisphere’s richest three-year-old race after being selected by the Barneswood Brady Nakhle Slot Holder partnership.
Well Written was the horse every NZB Kiwi Slot Holder wanted, but after Entain New Zealand secured the unbeaten filly earlier this month, the Barneswood/Nakhle partnership moved quickly to lock in their next target.
Brady Nakhle was rapt to seal a deal with Lollapalooza's owners - Social Racing Premier Dynamic Duo Syndicate and Richardson Racing Carnival Syndicate.
“Well Written was at the top of everyone’s list, but you can only have one of those, and Lolla was certainly on the radar,” Nakhle said. “She was by far and away our choice thereafter.”