Prima Park celebrate winning graduates

[Wandering Eyes]

Andy Win (NZ) (Almanzor) completed a memorable Prima Park graduate double this week in the Matamata Glass & Joinery 2000 on Wednesday, and farm principal Kelly Van Dyk couldn’t be any happier with the result.

Andy Win was a breeze-up partner to last Saturday’s Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m) winner Warmonger (NZ) (War Decree) at the 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, where the latter was sold to Champagne Racing’s Shane Kennedy for $165,000, while Andy Win failed to reach his $80,000 reserve.

Warmonger was subsequently on sold to Australian syndicator OTI Racing and entered the care of trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, for whom he has won three of his nine starts, including Saturday’s Derby win, and he was also runner-up in the Gr.1 South Australian Derby (2500m) the start prior.

Warmonger was a pinhook for Van Dyk, in association with Ben Kwok and bloodstock agent Bevan Smith, after they went to $75,000 to purchase him out of Valachi Downs’ 2022 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 2 Yearling Sale draft.

He would go on to join Prima Park’s Ready to Run Sale draft later that year, alongside Andy Win, who the same partnership had gone to $55,000 to purchase out of Carlaw Park’s 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling Sale draft.

Winning a maiden at a midweek meeting at Matamata might be poles apart from a Derby victory, but Van Dyk, who also trains Andy Win, was just as rapt to pick up the victory with Andy Win on her home track.

“It was a really impressive win today,” she said. “It was his first time over 2000m, so you are always going to be apprehensive with how they will go, but his work on Saturday was huge galloping on the course proper at Matamata, and we were pretty confident heading into today.

“I thought his first-up run over a mile at Te Rapa was really encouraging, just the way that he found the line. He has always looked like an out-and-out stayer.

“Fittingly we (Van Dyk and Ben Kwok) owned Warmonger together and sold him. This horse (Andy Win) breezed up with Warmonger at the ready to run sale.

“We are a long way from a Derby win in Queensland at Matamata on a Wednesday, but I think this horse is progressive and to do what he did today on his first trip over ground, I think it is all in front of him.

“We bought him as a weanling and took him to the ready to runs. He was pretty green in his breeze-up and failed to make his reserve, so we just decided to keep him and push on with him, which we have done.”

Van Dyk was rapt to see Warmonger win the Queensland Derby over the weekend in impressive fashion.

“It was an awesome feeling to see a horse that you have selected yourself and done all the work with, and just to see him win like that was really satisfying,” she said.

Van Dyk said Andy Win was always going to take a bit of time and she is hoping that he is now just starting to hit his straps compared to Warmonger who gave the impression her was a more precocious type during his time at Prima Park.

“They were quite different,” she said. “Andy Win was always a big horse and you could see he was going to be a stayer in the making, and time was going to be his friend, and that is exactly what has happened, he has continued to keep getting better and better as time has gone on.

“Warmonger was probably a bit more compact and has that huge heart and stamina to have done what he has done now. Both were very lovely horses in their own right and headed down different paths.”

There has been a fair bit of interest in Andy Win from bloodstock agents, and he too could find himself across the Tasman in the near future.

“He has had a few people sniffing around, so he might be sold before we get to carry on with him,” Van Dyk said. “If not, we will just keep progressing through the grades. He is just going to get better with time, he is a big horse and we have just been really patient with him.”

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