Journalists Wandering Eyes Posted yesterday at 03:13 AM Journalists Share Posted yesterday at 03:13 AM An Australian campaign is in the offing for Pier. Photo: Kenton Wright (Race Images) Pier may have fallen just short of winning Saturday’s Listed City Of Napier Sprint (1200m), but trainers Darryn and Briar Weatherley couldn’t have been happier with their returning star ahead of a potential campaign in Queensland. As a three-year-old, Pier won a competitive Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) and placed in a Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) and Group 3 Almanzor Trophy (1200m). Since then, he has spent much of the last two seasons on the sidelines, including after winning impressively when resuming last June. A sharp trial at Ellerslie gave the Weatherleys confidence heading into his resuming run in the Trentham feature, where he settled near the tail of the field and stormed home to miss Slipper Island by a half-head, breaking 11 seconds for the final 200m. “Pier is our stable stalwart, he’s had well-documented issues but we’ve given him the time that he’s needed,” Darryn Weatherley said. “His work going into the race was super, his trial was excellent at Ellerslie and he was pretty fit for Saturday, he looked good in the parade ring and I thought he would run some sort of a race, which he did alongside Tomodachi. “Taking nothing away from the winner, with an ounce of luck he probably could’ve won, he changed ground two or three times in the straight. “It was great to see him come back and do that over 1200m when they’ve run such a good time, his sectionals were exceptional.” Delighted to have Pier back at his best, Weatherley is eyeing a time-honoured feature during the Brisbane Winter Carnival in June. “We’re thrilled to bits to have him back, he’s our first and only Group One winner so he holds a very special place in our stable,” he said. “He’s five rising six now, and to be honest, I think he’s only just grown into himself. “He’s having a couple of days in the paddock, the weather looks like it’s turning so he’ll probably come back into his box on Tuesday night. He’ll go to the track and swim for a week, then ideally, we would love to get to Brisbane. “I know it’ll be a hard race to get into, but a race like the Stradbroke (Group 1, 1400m) would be an ideal race for him, maybe even if we have to go a bit earlier and run in a race like the Kingsford-Smith Cup (Group 1, 1300m) to qualify, we’ll have to wait and see. “We’re still six or seven weeks away from that so we’ve got a bit of time up our sleeve. “That would be ideal, I’d love to go and get a little bit of sun on my back before the winter months.” Less than 24 hours after Pier’s effort at Trentham, his close relation Bulgari kicked off his racing career in the best possible fashion at Te Rapa, winning the Five Stags Leamington 2YO (1200m). A son of Hello Youmzain, Bulgari was purchased for $220,000 by the Weatherleys at the National Yearling Sales last January, continuing their highly-successful association with a family that has produced Pier and Group Three-winning sprinter Maria Farina. The colt had made three appearances at the trials for a win and two placings, most recently in the hands of Matt Cartwright, who was aboard when he stepped out on debut on Sunday. Underrated in the market at $11, Bulgari stepped away fairly from the gates and Cartwright let him find his feet in the second half of the field, while race-favourite Princess Elsa and Rising Star set a strong tempo up-front. Coming to the middle of the track, Bulgari began to hunt down the leaders in the straight and showed a similarly sharp turn-of-foot that his siblings possess to fend off a game Do You Just, with Rising Star holding well in third. The road to raceday hadn’t gone entirely to plan with Bulgari going shin-sore on several occasions, and his trainers were rapt to see him performing up to their early hopes. “We bought the colt at Karaka because he was closely related to Pier and Maria Farina in the book and each time I went back to look at him, I liked him more,” Weatherley said. “We paid more for him than Briar and I could afford, but we managed to syndicate him which was cool. “He won his first trial very well left-handed at Rotorua, but we put him out after that because he went shin-sore. He came back and ran third at Pukekohe right-handed at the trials, which was a little bit deflating because he’d gone so well the first time, but we discovered he was shin sore again. “We put him aside again and brought him back, then he went to Ellerslie and didn’t go a bad trial there with the rail out a long way. His work during the week on the course-proper (at Matamata) was pretty good and my son Sam galloped him, and he thought back left-handed over 1100m, they’ll know he’s in the race. “Sam gave me a little bit more confidence and he was proved right, we’re very pleased.” Weatherley is able to draw a number of comparisons between the talented trio, who share the same granddam in Naturo, a multiple stakes winner herself. “He’s got the same temperament as them which is beautiful, he wants to be a racehorse,” he said. “He’s a colt and all he wants to do is eat and sleep which is ideal, he’s very placid and easy to have around. He has got a little bit of that same acceleration as them as well. “The plan was always to give him three educational trials, then I wanted to give him one run for experience before the winter and hopefully get some points for next season as a three-year-old. “It’s certainly going to be a lot easier now that he’s won a race, it’s an added bonus.” Bulgari was bred by Jamieson Park, who remain in a large ownership group that includes the Weatherleys and Barry Wright. Horse racing news View the full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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