Stakes targets await Pericles following Pukekohe triumph

[Wandering Eyes]

Pericles (outside) on his way to winning at Pukekohe on Saturday. Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images)

Stakes targets await Pericles after he recorded his second win from his last three starts at Pukekohe on Sunday.

The son of Rubick showed good gate speed from his outside alley in the eight-horse field to find a handy position outside leader There Goes My Hero.

Pericles put his nose in front with 200m to go and was able to hold off the fast-finishing Tanganyika to win by half a length.

It was the gelding’s second win from six career starts, with Pam Gerard, who trains the three-year-old in partnership with Michael Moroney, saying track conditions have played a key factor in those results.

“He’s a pretty good horse and it’s only a couple of wet tracks and indifferent rides that have tripped him up,” Gerard said.

“He just cannot cope with wet tracks and is still very green, but once he works it out he could have a bright future if we do the right things by him and don’t rush him.”

Stakes targets could now be in the offing for Pericles, whose grandam Ethereal won the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).

“Depending how he comes through the race, we might try and find a suitable stakes race over 1200m or 1400m and then probably give him a break,” Gerard said.

“Vinnie (Colgan, jockey) said he still doesn’t really know what he’s doing and wants to go a bit hard. He’s got the pedigree to go a lot further, but in the meantime, he’s showing plenty of natural speed over shorter trips.

“It’s good to see him racing so well while he’s still working it all out, which just shows he’s got the talent.”

Selected by Paul Moroney Bloodstock and purchased for $110,000 by Ballymore Stables out of Pencarrow Stud’s 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Sale, Pericles races in the Fletcher tartan colours and shares similar ownership of triple Group 1 placed stablemate Harlech.

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