Plans for Australia
Plans are afoot for three Go Racing horses to race in Australia this spring.
Hasabro has a campaign earmarked for the VRC Derby since he was spelled in March at the end of his two-year-old season. A full-brother to the Group 1 winning filly HASAHALO, he has shown a very good turn of foot in his work, but has also shown a desire to want to stay from a young age.
Say’s trainer Stephen Mckee “He has just wanted to relax and finish his work, trials and races off since we first started with him, which is also a trait of his sister’s. Given these traits and his pedigree, we developed a plan six months ago to target the VRC Derby.” “I was rapt with his first up run at Ruakaka over 1000 metres, as to foot it with sprinters tells us how well he is going.”
Manager Albert Bosma has an eye on when he will travel to Australia “The fresh-up run has brought him on, but we are coming out of a New Zealand winter and his coat is yet to turn. We don’t want to take him to Australia until this starts to move, so he is likely to have at least one more run in New Zealand, probably over 1400 metres before he goes. We would like to get him on a decent track too, which can be a challenge at this time of the year.”
The team are keeping their options open with whether they head to Sydney first or directly to Melbourne as there are good races in both cities. Weather and track conditions will play a significant part in this decision.
Mark Two and Campari will also be joining him in Australia. These two talented 4yo mares are in fairly unique positions of being black-type placed maidens. “Both mares are lightly raced and have outstanding form-lines.” Says trainer Stephen Marsh.
Mark Two was 2nd on debut by a nose and then 4th and 2nd in her next two starts, both Group 2 races, including the Sir Tristram Fillies Classic, before running a super 5th in the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks at just her 4th start. Campari was 3rd in her only start as a two-year-old on a heavy track and then ran very good 2nd placings to Te Akau Shark Group 2 winner SUMSTREETSUMWHERE before powering home for 3rd in the Listed Soliloquy Stakes behind Filly Of The Year DIJON BLEU. This made her 3rd favourite for the Group 1, One Thousand Guineas, but unfortunately a cold ruled her out of the race.
“You can’t ignore the prizemoney in New South Wales and these mares are in the perfect position to capitalise on that” says Racing Manager Albert Bosma. “As maidens with untapped ability, we can start them in the provinces in A$35,000 ($NZ$38,500) maidens, which is more than open class horses are racing for on a Saturday currently in New Zealand. From there they can progress to Wednesday races worth A$50,000 ($NZ$55,000) or Saturday races worth A$125,000 ($NZ$137,500).
“These are just straight out Rating Races, with Wednesdays worth more than our Listed races and Saturdays significantly more than our Group 2’s. These mares can make a lot of money for their owners just working through the grades and that will be our plan. There is plenty of time for them to tackle Group Racing later in their preparation or in their next campaign.”
Stephen Marsh is excited about taking them over. “They will have one trial or possibly two here to confirm they are on target and then go to Australia. They won’t race in New Zealand first.”