It has been 15 years since a Hastings-trained horse triumphed in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby but the diminutive Tulsa King now gives the centre a good chance of celebrating success again in this year’s feature.
The three-year-old Staphanos gelding took a giant step towards the $1.25million Trackside New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie on March 7 with a gutsy run for second in the Listed $100,000 Gingernuts Salver (2100m) at Ellerslie last Saturday.
The last Hastings-trained horse to win the New Zealand Derby was the great Jimmy Choux, who prevailed in 2011.
The son of Thorn Park was trained by John Bary and owned by Hawke’s Bay couple Richard and Liz Wood.
The Derby was one of five Group 1 races Jimmy Choux chalked up among his 12 victories, the others being the New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton, Rosehill Guineas (2000m) in Sydney and both the Windsor Park Plate (1600m) and NZ Bloodstock Insurance Spring Classic (2040m) at Hastings. He also recorded a game second in the 2011 Cox Plate (2040m) in Melbourne.
Tulsa King is trained at Hastings by Aaron Bidlake and is a family horse, with Bidlake and partner Michelle Young sharing in the ownership with his uncle and aunt, Barry and Teresa Bidlake.
“Mum and Dad (Karen and Graeme) also have a share in him as part of the Grassroots Syndicate that Michelle has set up,” Bidlake said this week.
Tulsa King is a “pocket rocket” standing only a fraction over 15 hands high and weighing not much more than 400kg. But what he lacks in size he certainly makes up with in toughness and he certainly gave his all when running second behind the much bigger and vastly more imposing Ammirati in last Saturday’s feature race at Ellerslie.
Ammirati won by three-quarters of a length but Tulsa King was briefly held up twice in the home straight, when jockey Sam Collett was trying to secure an inside run. He was also one of only a few horses to make up ground down on the inside part of the track on the day.
It was the same result as the Group 3 Wellington Stakes (1600m) at Otaki back on November 30, where Ammirati was a fortuitous winner after Road To Paris lost the rider just short of the line when looking to have the race won. Tulsa King was hampered by the riderless horse and finished only a nose behind Ammirati in second place.
Ammirati is now equal third favourite for the New Zealand Derby at $9.00 on the Futures Market while Tulsa King’s odds for the 2400m event have been slashed from $61 to $21.
Size is not the only thing that stands the two horses apart. The royally-bred Ammirati, a son of champion sire Savabeel, was a $450,000 purchase from the 2023 Karaka yearling sales while Bidlake and Young managed to pick up Tulsa King for just $1500.
“He had three trials and a couple of runs up north for Barry Donoghue and he trialled up okay but didn’t set the world on fire and only managed to beat one horse home in his first two starts,” Bidlake recalled.
“They put him on Gavelhouse and we were lucky enough to get him for only $1500. I guess being so small put a lot of people off.
“He really is a tiny horse, but I’m not worried about small horses. I won the Grand National (5600m) with Eric The Viking and he was pretty small.”
Eric The Viking claimed the National in 2014 off the back of success in the Koral Steeplechase (4250m) and also won the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m).
“We’re having a fair old ride with a very cheap horse now and Barry Donoghue was the first one to come up to me on Sunday and congratulate us for running second, so that was nice,” Bidlake said.
“He went super and the ride from Sam Collett was fantastic. They got held up a bit in the straight but for a horse she’d never sat on before she gave him such a good ride along the fence.
“He came through it very well and we came home through the night back to Hastings, and he was bouncing in the paddock on Monday morning.”
While most NZ Derby aspirants will use either the Waikato Guineas (2000m) at Te Rapa on February 7 or the Avondale Guineas (2100m) at Ellerslie on February 21 as a final lead-up, Bidlake will take a different path with Tulsa King.
“I don’t want to give him another long trip up north before the Derby,” Bidlake said.
“He’s only small and it would take too much out of him so instead he can stay closer to home and run in the Wairoa Cup at Waipukurau next month and then go straight into the Derby.
“Sam Collett said she will come down and ride him at Waipukurau and is also keen to stick with him for the Derby.”
The $40,000 Wairoa Cup (2100m) will be the feature race at the Waipukurau meeting on February 15 and has proven to be a good lead up to the New Zealand Derby in the past.
The Kevin Myers-trained C’est La Guerre took out the 2008 Wairoa Cup, when it was run on the Te Kupenga racecourse in Wairoa, before he went on to win that year’s Derby.
Tulsa King’s only win to date came on a heavy track at New Plymouth back in September but he has now shown he can cope with good footing too and his biggest attribute is his ability to settle well in his races.
“In his races, he has got back and gone to sleep and we’ve thought all along he was a staying type of horse and the pedigree suggests that. The further he goes the better he’ll be,” Bidlake added.
The Chequers Stud-bred gelding is out of the Encosta De Lago mare Lilies who is a half-sister to Soriano, dual Group 1 winner of the Zabeel Classic (2000m) and Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m), and from the family of the 2021 New Zealand Derby winner Rocket Spade.
Bary racks up six in a month
Hastings trainer John Bary brought up his sixth training success in the space of a month when Anushka Shesastar took out a $40,000 Rating 65 race over 1340m at Wanganui last Saturday.
His stable’s outstanding run started when Psyclone and Afternoon Siesta scored a race-to-race double at Tauherenikau on December 10.
The following weekend he produced Vickezzmargaux for an overdue success at Otaki on December 19 and Party Rocking to win at Trentham on December 20 and then Afternoon Siesta scored another runaway win at Trentham on January 3.
Bary has been one of Hawke’s Bay’s leading thoroughbred trainers for more than 25 years but has wound down his operation in recent times and only has 16 horses in work at the moment.
Anushka Shesastar is raced by Auckland-based Narendra Balia, who has been a loyal client of the Bary stable for many years.
The Proisir four-year-old mare was a $130,000 purchase from a two-year-old Ready To Run sale and has now recorded two wins, a second and three thirds from 17 starts.
Anushka Shesastar completed a winning double for jockey Sam Collett at Wanganui last Saturday and brought up her sixth success for the weekend after she kicked home four winners at Otaki the previous day.
The mare was slow to begin from the 1340m barrier but Collett quickly had her on the improve, three-wide, around the field.
They were the widest rounding the home turn but Anushka Shesastar maintained a strong finish, stretching her neck out in the final stages to score by a short neck.
New rider to bolster the CD ranks
A fresh face has joined the Central Districts riding ranks this week, with Hong Kong national Alan Lai commencing a six-month stint in New Zealand.
The apprentice jockey has spent the last couple of years riding in South Australia under the tutelage of Morphetville trainers Leon MacDonald and Andrew Gluyas, and fellow South Australian horseman Jon O’Connor.
Lai, 25, recorded 53 wins in Australia including the City of Port Augusta Cup (2300m), Roxby Downs Cup (1800m) and Quorn Cup (1900m) aboard the New Zealand-bred Grinzinger Star.
“I was in Australia for two years. It was good, all the jockeys were helpful and I got a lot of opportunities,” Lai said.
“I won seven different Cups races, three of those on Grinzinger Star.”
Lai commenced his riding career in his homeland when joining the Hong Kong Jockey Club Apprentice Training Program in 2018.
He is following a well-trodden path for Hong Kong apprentices, with both Britney Wong and Nichola Yuen having also commenced their riding careers in South Australia before venturing to New Zealand, with Wong achieving the ultimate aim of returning to ride in Hong Kong.
Lai has taken inspiration from Wong’s success and has spoken with her about her time in New Zealand.
“I spoke with Britney and she said it’s good (riding in New Zealand) but the weather can be quite bad,” he said.
Lai arrived in Palmerston North late last week and has joined Daniel Nakhle’s New Zealand Equine Academy, where he will be under the guidance of former champion jockey Leith Innes, who heads the Apprentice Jockey Academy.
He has been riding trackwork for Awapuni trainer Roydon Bergerson and he got his New Zealand stint off to the best possible start when riding the Bergerson-trained Bradman to victory in an 850m heat at the Foxton trials on Tuesday.
Lai is looking forward to riding at the races and trainers interested in utilising his talent can contact Leith Innes, who will act as his agent during his time in New Zealand, on 021 798 881.