John and Lucy Scoular, two of Hawke’s Bay’s most passionate thoroughbred owner-breeders, were rewarded for their enthusiasm and patience when Free Bee broke through for a maiden win at Waverley on Friday of last week.
The Rageese three-year-old was having only her second start when she lined up in a maiden 1200m race and it was a great training feat by Hastings couple Mick Brown and Sue Thompson that they were able to get the filly to peak after she hadn’t raced for more than 12 months.
Apprentice Lemmy Douglas was given the mount and jumped her out well from the outside barrier to be in the first three on settling.
Douglas was unable to slot in better than three-wide for the entire race and was forced to make a move to go up and challenge the leaders coming to the home turn.
First starter Fetiche had made all the running in front and looked set for victory when she kicked clear rounding the home bend. But Free Bee kept up a determined finish to get up and win by half a neck.
The Scoulars have owned and raced horses for more than 40 years and, although they have not enjoyed a huge amount of success, they have still enjoyed a lot of great times from the horses they have bred and raced.
Their biggest moment in racing came when they bred Jolly Jake, winner of five races including the Group 1 1984 New Zealand Derby. He was by the then Hawke’s Bay-based stallion Three Legs out of the Sucaryl mare Honeypot and was sold by the Scoulars as a young horse to Singapore-based Ivan Allan.
Free Bee descends from the same family as Jolly Jake as she is out of the Volksraad mare Bizz, whose grandam was Honeypot.
The Scoulars bred and race Free Bee in partnership with their son Andy and daughter Sally Tothill and she is the sixth individual winner left by the now deceased broodmare Bizz.
Lucy Scoular said this week they decided on the name Free Bee as they had won a free service to the sire Rageese.
Murdoch, by Volksraad, was the first foal out of Bizz and the winner of one race while Runny Honey was the second foal and won two races, one on the flat and one over hurdles.
Bizzwinkle, a son of Rip Van Winkle, was the third of Bizz’s progeny to race and easily the most successful, being the winner of six races including the 2018 New Zealand Cup (3200m).
Bizz then left The Bizzness (one win) and Awesome Treasure, who has recorded one win and several minor placings in Hong Kong.
The mare then produced Free Bee and there is a yearling full-brother to that filly which has been given to Hastings couple Paul and Carol Nelson.
Cup assault by Hastings horses
Hastings stables could have at least five runners in next Saturday’s Listed $85,000 Power Farming Hawke’s Bay Cup, feature race at the Hawke’s Bay Easter weekend race meeting.
The connections of Hunta Pence, Mohaka, Lilly Laguna, Motivation and Magic Incanto have all indicated they are keen to line their horses up in the 2200m event, which dates back to 1875.
Hunta Pence will be having his fourth attempt at the Hawke’s Bay Cup, following a third in 2018, a fourth equal in 2019 and a seventh last year. The now nine-year-old is the winner of 11 races and showed he is on target for another crack with a good fifth in last Saturday’s weight-for-age Awapuni Gold Cup (2000m). That followed a fourth over 1400m at Trentham on March 12, a distance well short of his best.
Hunta Pence is trained by Patrick Campbell, who would dearly love to claim success in the Hawke’s Bay Cup after going so close in the past.
The Campbell-trained Tarlton was ridden by Jimmy Cassidy when he finished a close second to Lone Hand in 1979 while Campbell also produced Lagerfeld to finish second behind Finezza Belle in 1988 and Val D’Arno was runner-up to Surfers Paradise in 1993.
Mohaka, who hails from the stable of Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen, has been freshened since finishing ninth in the Group 1 Auckland Cup (3200m) on March 13 and that followed a game third in the Group 2 Avondale Cup (2400m) at Ellerslie in February. The Nadeem mare is the winner of only three races but one of those victories was in the Listed Feilding Cup (2100m) at Awapuni and she has been stakes placed on several occasions.
Lilly Laguna contested a Rating 74 race over 1600m at Awapuni last Saturday and her performance to tail the field home is best forgotten. The Rios mare shied at a join in the running rail, about 900m from the finish, and ducked sideways sharply. Rider Joe Kamaruddin was almost unseated and completely lost the use of his stirrup irons for he rest of the race.
Before that Lilly Laguna had recorded two impressive wins, one over 2100m at Hastings in February and the other over 2200m at Trentham on March 12. Being a Rating 71 horse she will get into the Hawke’s Bay Cup on a light weight.
She is prepared by John Bary who is the last Hastings-based trainer to win the Hawke’s Bay Cup when he saddled up Survived in 2013.
Motivation is the winner of only two races but has also been placed in other high profile races. He is coming off a last start fifth in the New Zealand St Leger (2500m) at Trentham on March 19 and that followed a third in the Wairoa Cup (2100m) at Hastings in February. The Mastercraftsman gelding also finished second in the Listed Wanganui Cup (2040m) back in November last year.
Magic Incanto is the winner of six races but has yet to race beyond 1600m. She is coming off a last placing in the Group 3 Cuddle Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on March 19 but trainer Fred Pratt says that run is best overlooked as she went into the race underdone.
Pratt is keen to try the mare over a middle distance and the fact that she races well on her home track has prompted him to consider testing her stamina in the Hawke’s Bay Cup. The rain that is forecast for the Hastings area in the coming week will help her chances.
While the Power Farming Hawke’s Bay Cup will be the main race at next Saturday’s Hawke’s Bay meeting there will also be a good undercard, with the Listed $60,000 Power Farming Sprint (1200m) and the $50,000 Vintech Poverty Bay Cup (2500m) the other main events.
Crowds will again be allowed back on course following the easing in Covid restrictions and there will be a general admission charge of $10 a head for those aged 16 and older.
Kahma Lass changes stable
New Zealand Group 1 winning mare Kahma Lass will do her future racing from the Australian stable of Anthony and Sam Freedman.
The valuable daughter of Darci Brahma, winner of the Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) and the Listed Weekend Hussler Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield, was trained then by Jamie Richards and is still owned by Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay.
The four-year-old was given a jumpout by her new trainers earlier this week and will now be aimed at the Queensland winter carnival.
“The plan is to get her up to Queensland and ultimately aim at a race like the Group 1 Tatts Tiarra (1600m) but there are some other nice races for mares up there,” Sam Freedman said.
Unbeaten Yonce faces tough test
Cambridge horseman Ross McCarroll has resisted the urge to head to Sydney this weekend to watch his mare Yonce contest the Group 1 $A1million Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m).
The four-year-old daughter of Proisir takes a picket fence form line into the race, having been unbeaten in her six starts to date.
McCarroll has been delighted with the mare’s performance since joining the stable of trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, who have placed her to perfection to bank $A366,750 this campaign, but acknowledges the step up to weight-for-age against elite fillies and mares will be the sternest test to date for the rising star.
“It’s a step up against the better ones this week, but she has earnt it,” McCarroll said.
“She has been going great, you can’t complain.”
McCarroll, who initially trained Yonce in New Zealand and remains in the ownership, said the mare will appreciate the wet weather that has been hitting Sydney.
“She definitely likes it rain-affected,” he said. “I found here that when she worked or trialled on the rain-affected tracks she was better than what she was on a hard track, and I think they have found the same over there.
“I think she is a very good miler. She will be fit and hard for the wet track.”
McCarroll purchased Yonce as a yearling after she was originally passed in at the 2019 Karaka sales, with a reserve of $30,000, and was impressed by her from day one.
“She has always been a nice filly, we have always liked her,” he said.
“We had a good horse years ago called Signet Ring and she reminded me of her, which is why I was attracted to her, and I liked her pedigree.
“Because she went shin-sore and missed her three-year-old races we thought she was too good a horse to race here when the stake money is so good over in Aussie.
Prominent Australian owner Ozzie Kheir bought an interest in Yonce after she caught the eye when finishing a close third in a Te Rapa trial but McCarroll and his fellow Kiwi owners---Shane McAlister, Stephen Kneebone and Lyn McMullan---still own 50 per cent between them and are all enjoying the ride.