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Burnham Square Flies to Blue Grass Victory
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Godolphin, Stidham 'Think Big' to Win Shakertown
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Zenyatta’s Grandson Takes to OBS Track Wednesday
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Wednesday’s Racing Insights: ‘Rising Star’ Lion of Justice Stretches to Two Turns at Keeneland
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Growing up watching her mum in the saddle lit a fire in Ashlee Strawbridge to become a jockey, and at Cambridge on Wednesday she realised a dream when riding home her first winner. That win came aboard the locally-trained Cheap Sav, and Strawbridge showed the maturity of a more seasoned rider when biding her time at the rear of the field in the Saddlery Warehouse 1300 before unleashing her charge out wide to run over the top of her rivals to score by a long neck over Oban. Indentured to Te Awamutu trainer Debbie Sweeney, Strawbridge was delighted to score her first victory in her home region, with the occasion enhanced by having her mother and employer trackside to celebrate. “That was awesome,” Strawbridge said. “Mum was here and I could hear them all cheering when I trotted back in, so that was awesome to have them all here supporting me.” Trainer Tarissa Macdonald was just as rapt for the 19-year-old apprentice, and believes she has a bright future instore. “We have been watching Ashlee since the start of her riding career. Michelle is a good friend of mine and I am so happy for her,” Macdonald said. “She rode her a treat. Hopefully she won’t forget me and be loyal because she is going places, she is doing a really good job. I am happy for her.” While she grew up riding and helping out in racing stables, a career in the saddle wasn’t assured for Strawbridge, who elected to commence tertiary education before electing to pursue her dream vocation. “My mum, Michelle Hopkins, was a jockey, so I have pretty much been riding horses from the moment I could walk,” she said. “I started riding for Debbie (Sweeney) around high school. I went down to Christchurch and rode for Ross Beckett when I went down for university, but uni wasn’t for me, so I found out more about doing an apprenticeship and moved back home and got started with Debbie. “Mum works for Debbie as well, it’s an awesome work environment, it’s like one big family.” Strawbridge had come close to victory in several of her 30-odd starts before Wednesday’s breakthrough win, and she said she is relieved to finally be on the board. “I have had a few placings now, so it is good to finally get the monkey off the back,” she said. With her first win now on the board, Strawbridge has a hunger for more and is hoping to add to her tally at Tauranga on Saturday. “What A Charma is running this weekend at Tauranga and I think he will be a nice horse going through the grades over winter,” she said. “He went very close last start, so if we can do the same thing in the Kiwifruit Cup (2100m) that would be good. “I am also riding Blackpink Jennie and Digger. Blackpink Jennie is a nice mare who has got a good draw (5) and will get through the wet ground well, and Digger is an honest horse who always tries hard, and he should be right there till the end.” View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
After Here To Shock (NZ) (Shocking) returned his best season as a racehorse as a seven-year-old gelding, owner and syndicate manager Rob Slade is banking on him continuing that upward trajectory. “He’s getting better with age. He’s very lightly raced for a seven-year-old gelding as he has had only 37 starts and most horses his age would be in the 55-to-60-starts bracket,” Slade said of Here To Shock, who has won 13 races and $2.8 million in prizemoney. Here To Shock is back in work and being aimed first-up at the Group 2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 17. “That’s a suitable race for him. He loves 1400m at Caulfield, where he has two wins, including the Group 3 Victoria Handicap and two seconds,” Slade said. In the 2024-25 racing season, Here To Shock had seven starts for four wins and two seconds and he secured his first G1 win when he took out the BCD Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa in February. In the lead-up to that win, Here To Shock won the inaugural The Supernova at Pakenham over 1400m. After New Zealand, his trainers Ben, JD and Will Hayes brought Here To Shock back to Australia to finish second in the G1 Canterbury Stakes over 1300m at Randwick behind Royal Patronage. That was also a significant performance as it was the first time he had been placed at the highest level in Australia. “We’ve never had a real issue with him. He’s very sound, so we think he’s a horse that still races effectively when he’s eight and nine years old,” he said, with the recent results in G1 races convincing connections that’s the level of race they will aim him at during spring. Meanwhile the ownership group has also voted to move rising five-year-old mare Roll On High to Lindsay Park from Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman’s stables. “They wanted to try Roll On High in a new environment. They had nothing against Moody, but just wanted to change it up,” he said. Roll On High has been spelling since she finished sixth in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes, where she didn’t have a lot of galloping room, and she will resume work this week with the plan to run her at Flemington at their Makybe Diva Stakes meeting on September 13. Here To Shock was purchased by Rob Slade from the Cambridge Stud draft at the 2019 Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 1). View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Knobelas (NZ) (Belardo) has continued the winning form of OTI Racing with victory in a race at Sandown, hours after the colours were worn to success at Royal Ascot. Docklands gave OTI Racing one of their biggest victories when successful in the opening race of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes over the straight mile course on Tuesday night (Australian time). Knobelas won over a similar trip in the OTI Racing colours, taking out the Stow Storage Solutions Handicap (1600m) at Sandown on Wednesday. Prepared by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, Knobelas, the $2.35 favourite, raced to a 3-¼ length win under Jordan Childs from All Business with Colour Our Word two lengths away third. Knobelas may not reach the same Group 1 heights as Docklands, but there was plenty of merit in the victory, her second from three career starts. “It was very similar to last time,” Kent Jnr said of Wednesday’s win. “She got her own way in front and if you’ve got the tactical speed and you take it up and no one wants to take you on, you deserve that. “She’s got a very good turn of foot. She sustained a solid gallop all-the-way when being up in grade, so that was quite impressive. “She’s won by a big margin again and I know there is still a heap to come with her. “It’s exciting.” Kent Jnr said immaturity had stopped Knobelas from making her debut earlier, but added it was likely Knobelas would continue to race through the winter months. “She’s a very sweet filly, very sound, does everything right,” Kent Jnr said. “I just love her change up gear and that’s going to win you more races than not. “I don’t think she needs to go further than the mile at the moment, so we’ll place her through winter and see if she can win again. “The owners have been very patient, so if she is not training off and while she’s a three-year-old filly, Saturday class beckons.” Kent Jnr said the Silver Bowl Series Final at Flemington on July 5 could be a potential next target. Knobelas was previously trained in New Zealand by Simon and Katrina Alexander and was sold following a trial win at Te Awamutu. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
A month after his barnstorming stakes victory at Ellerslie, smart juvenile Do You Just (NZ) (So You Think) has been sold and will continue his racing career in Hong Kong. The son of So You Think showed promise through his two-year-old season, but it wasn’t until the Listed Champagne Stakes (1600m) in mid-May that he showed his true colours, leading up and spacing his rivals by 6-½ lengths. That performance came as little surprise for co-trainer Lance O’Sullivan, who shared in the ownership of Do You Just with Waikato Stud, his daughter Caitlin O’Sullivan Doyle, and her husband Tom Doyle. “The only surprise about his stakes win was that he hadn’t produced that kind of performance before then,” O’Sullivan said. “We certainly thought he was up to it. “As we went, we found out a bit about him, and the reason why he hadn’t been was because he’d never raced right-handed before that. He trialled particularly well right-handed, and the first start he had right-handed, he did that.” When purchased for $250,000 out of Carlaw Park’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales, connections had hoped Do You Just would race on as a colt, but after being gelded, selling him became an inevitability. “He was purchased as a colt, but once he had to be gelded, he was no real value to Waikato Stud, as they would generally race fillies or colts,” O’Sullivan said. “I also raced 20 percent of the horse myself. “When we sell a horse out of the stable, the one thing we hope is that they turn out really well, so the owners will come back in the future. “It is the way racing is, some people choose to keep them, but this horse was purchased for $250,000 at the sales, and he paid his way and sold for a profit. “Hopefully, we can repeat the same sort of exercise in the future and the horse can remain a colt, but he just wasn’t going to make a racehorse as a colt. “We hope he can go up to Hong Kong and turn into a top horse for his new connections.” View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Lisa Latta will hold a strong hand in Friday’s two-year-old feature at Otaki, with Platinum Diamond (NZ) (Hello Youmzain) tipped as her top seed. The Awapuni trainer will have able back-up in the Listed John Turkington Forestry Castletown Stakes (1200m) with Brutiful Lass and Platinum Pantheon also in contention. Platinum Diamond has earned top billing from the stable after the highly encouraging start the daughter of Hello Youmzain has made to her career. The filly made late ground to run fourth at her Hawera debut in early May and then produced an irresistible finish from the back of the field at Wanganui to defeat Country Salon, again a race rival. “I’d have to go with the last-start winner, she was really good and ran home well and has gone in the right direction since,” Latta said. She is unsure of Platinum Diamond’s future after the Castletown and whether she would be in the running for the upcoming Listed Courtesy Ford Ryder Stakes (1200m). “We’ll just get through this run first and then make up our minds,” Latta said. “It will be her third start and she’ll need a break at some stage, she was a late foal and she looks a nice three-year-old prospect.” Brutiful Lass finished runner-up on debut at Tauherenikau earlier this year and returned from a break to run third at Hawera before the Brutal filly ran out of luck behind Platinum Diamond. “I’m really happy with her and she didn’t have all favours at Wanganui where a gap got quite tight on her,” Latta said. “She certainly isn’t the worst for a maidener as it doesn’t look an overly strong field.” The third member of the trio is Hanseatic’s son Platinum Pantheon, who made two appearances during the summer for a first-up fourth at Tauherenikau and then unplaced at Wanganui. “He had a jump-out at Levin and went really well, he ran second and just got beaten,” Latta said. “He looks well and it’s just whether he handles the track, being an Australian-bred horse.” Latta has several other runners on Friday and also liked the chances of Benefactor in the Cavallo Farms & Chris Rutten Bloodstock Handicap (1600m) and Good Craic in the Vets on Riverbank Maiden (1200m). “Benefactor was good at Wanganui last Saturday and will be backing up and Good Craic has been knocking on the door,” she said. Contributer mare Benefactor was a last-start third in open handicap company while Per Incanto four-year-old Good Craic has posted four runner-up finishes from her last five outings. View the full article
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