The powerful Hastings training partnership of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal certainly experienced mixed fortunes last Saturday.
The pair took four runners to the Waikato meeting at Te Rapa where they looked to have a strong chance of taking out both feature jumping races, the $60,000 Waikato Hurdle and the $75,000 Waikato Steeples, with two form runners in both races.
They did manage to win the Waikato Hurdle with Dictation but their other runner in the race, Taika, was pulled up with 400 metres to run in the 3200m event when his rider felt he was out of contention.
Nelson and McDougal were then represented by champion jumper The Cossack and impressive last start winner Nedwin in the Waikato Steeples but had to settle for a third with Nedwin while topweight The Cossack fell at the last fence when still in a challenging position.
Nedwin started favourite for the 3900m race and looked a distinct winning chance before he put in a bad jump at the second to last fence and lost momentum.
The Nelson and McDougal stable also had two starters at the Wanganui meeting last Saturday and picked up a second with Kwanza in the maiden 2040m event, the Zed four-year-old fighting bravely to the line after he was sent forward to take a clear lead at the top of the home straight.
Nelson said this week that, although it was not the weekend’s results they were hoping for, all four of their jumpers have come through their races unharmed and he and McDougal are now planning at running some of them at next Saturday’s Trentham meeting, where the feature races will be the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m) and the Wellington Hurdle (3100m).
He said Dictation will probably bypass the Wellington meeting and be reserved for the Grand National meeting in Christchurch in the first week of August.
Dictation encountered more than his share of misfortune through the early part of his hurdling career, but he and jockey Mathew Gillies turned that around and made their own luck in this year’s Waikato Hurdle (3200m).
The winner of three of his seven starts over hurdles before Saturday’s feature, Dictation also threw away a likely Sydenham Hurdle (3100m) victory with a costly late blunder at Riccarton last August, followed by a luckless second at Woodville after being badly impeded by a fallen rival.
The Tavistock gelding finished third behind higher-rated stablemate Taika in a dress rehearsal at Te Rapa three weeks ago, and Nelson and McDougal had no doubt that he was capable of reversing that result in the Waikato Hurdle. He duly delivered, following in the hoofprints of The Cossack (2021) and Nedwin (2023) to give the stable a third Waikato Hurdle victory in the last five runnings.
Gillies played his role to perfection, sitting second behind Verry Flash through the early part of the race before striding forward to take the lead with a lap to go.
Dictation moved further ahead with a bold jump in the back straight, and Gillies elected to press on. They put five lengths on their rivals within the space of 100m, stealing a break on the field that they never relinquished.
Dictation was all alone in the home straight and romped to victory by 4-3/4 lengths over Verry Flash.
“He jumped brilliantly,” Gillies said. “Paul and Corrina are a great training team, they get their horses so fit and full credit to them. They and the horse made me look good today.
“He put in a really good jump down the back straight and got a bit further in front of Verry Flash, and I thought I might as well carry on and put a bit of pressure on. The horse did a great job.”
Dictation has now had 32 starts for six wins, seven placings and $143,670 in stakes. His eight runs over hurdles have produced four wins and three placings.
“That was a beauty today,” Nelson said. “We’ve always rated him highly and he probably should have won five hurdle races by now. He should have won the Sydenham, and he was badly interfered with one day at Woodville too. It’s good to see him win a good race today.
“Mat made them chase him. I thought that might have been a bit ambitious, but it obviously wasn’t. It was a good ride and a good win.”
Dictation is owned by the I See Red Syndicate, a large team of jumping enthusiasts that Nelson and his wife Carol got involved into racing horses 21 years ago.
Since then the syndicate has chalked up 42 wins, including many of New Zealand’s prestige jumping races, and have amassed just on $1million in stakemoney.
“They have certainly had a lot of fun over the years and there are still 26 of the original 30 members of the syndicate still in,” Nelson said.
Just A Swagger was the first horse the syndicate raced and he won his first race in 2004. The Just A Dancer gelding went on to record back-to-back wins in the Grand National Hurdles in 2004 and 2005 and also took out the 2007 Hawke’s Bay Steeples and the Grand National Steeplechase in 2008.
Other good performers the syndicate has raced since then are Perry Mason, Solid Steal, Suliman and Barado.
Perry Mason won the 2018 running of the Pakuranga Hunt Cup and also scored consecutive victories in the Hawkes Bay Steeplechase in 2019 and 2020.
Solid Steal’s wins included the 2010 running of the Wellington Hurdles while Suliman also won a Wellington Hurdle in 2023 along with the 2021 running of the Taumarunui Gold Cup on the flat. And Barado was the winner of three races.
Hemi celebrates 300th win in style
Central Districts jockey Leah Hemi has spent many hours travelling the New Zealand countryside this season, and she’s been rewarded for that commitment with two important milestones ticked off last weekend.
As she travelled to Wanganui on Saturday, Hemi was sitting on 299 career wins and 48 for the season, and by the end of the meeting, she had achieved both her 300th success and 50th this term, courtesy of Knock Off and Identikit.
There was no time for celebrating, as Hemi was on a flight south a couple of hours later, with a strong book of rides on Sunday at Oamaru. She immediately picked up where she left off, taking out race one with La Evita, and completed a winning treble with The Entertainer and On The Rivet.
Hemi had been quietly confident heading into the weekend’s racing and couldn’t have been happier with what eventuated.
“I quickly drove home from Wanganui, changed a few things and flew from Palmy to Christchurch on Saturday evening,” she said. “I stay with my friend Krystal Williams, she’s a trainer down there, then I drove to Oamaru on Sunday morning.
“I really did like the book of rides I had on both days, especially with La Evita, and she really impressed me. She was a maidener three starts ago, and now she’s gone bang-bang-bang.
“I did expect to get at least two across the two days, but to get five was pretty lucky.”
With a previous-best tally of 34, Hemi had been hoping to exceed that amount this season, but she became especially driven when the two figures became well within reach.
“I was hoping to have my best season this year, so to get to 50 was pretty cool.
“I’ve ridden some really nice horses, I’ve been very lucky.
“It is quite exhausting (all of the travelling), but I’m quite lucky to have a lot of connections and I’ve built up a good base for myself.”
Pier’s win bittersweet for connections
Pier’s latest black type success at Eagle Farm prompted major celebrations, but there was also a bittersweet side for connections of the high-class son of Proisir.
He demolished his rivals in last Saturday’s Listed The Wayne Wilson (1600m) to further his record, which already included three-year-old victories in the Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m).
Pier is trained by the father and daughter combination of Darryn and Briar Weatherley with the former sharing in the ownership group with wife Lou, long-time friend Barry Wright and partners.
The Weatherleys and Wright bred the five-year-old and had the misfortune to lose his dam La Vitesse earlier this year.
“Unfortunately, she had bad laminitis and Jamieson Park did a wonderful job looking after her and nursing her, but it would have been too cruel for her to go another winter,” Darryn Weatherley said.
A daughter of Darci Brahma and multiple Group winner Naturo, La Vitesse was an $80,000 Karaka purchase and was initially prepared by John Sargent during his time at Matamata.
“We owned La Vitesse and Sarge won once with her before he went to Australia,” Weatherley said.
“I took out my licence then and trained her. She was my first runner to the races at Taupo and she won with Mickey Coleman in the saddle.”
La Vitesse’s first foal La Velocitea, by Proisir, was successful on three occasions and then came Maria Farina.
The daughter of Contributer won the Group 3 King’s Plate (1200m) and the Stewards’ Stakes (1200m) and Lightning Handicap (1200m) at Listed level from the Weatherley stable.
Maria Farina is now retired and will be mated for the first time this spring to either Paddington or Profondo.
“We’ve got a sister (Rumours) to Maria Farina, who has trialled very well and we’ve also got a brother to Pier, who has been broken in and is due to come back shortly,” Weatherley said.
Meanwhile, Pier has now gone for a month’s spell in the warmer climes of Queensland.