Wynyard Targets Champagne Stakes Glory at Ellerslie

[Wandering Eyes]

Hollie Wynyard has consistently matched up with the country’s best in her first solo season of training and she’ll chase a deserved stakes success when her talented youngsters contest Saturday’s Listed SkyCity Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie.

Prior to the current racing season, Wynyard trained for almost a decade in partnership with Johno Benner, winning a pair of Group Ones and a Karaka Million three-year-old crown in the process. When Benner decided to step back from training, Cambridge-based Wynyard took over the reins in full capacity and has since produced five stakes performers – Archaic Smile, Sierra Leone (NZ) (Sun City), Full Force, This Time Girl (NZ) (Contributer) and Toretto (NZ) (Ardrossan).

Toretto is one of two runners she will present in Saturday’s juvenile feature, coming off an impressive effort to finish third in the Listed Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes (1400m), run a fortnight ago at Te Rapa.

“It was a really good run, it was nice to see him back with a bit of confidence and attacking the line because he’s obviously shown a bit of ability,” Wynyard said.

“He’s always a horse that gets back a little bit so to see him get home as strongly as he did, that fills us with a lot of confidence that he will run out the mile.”

Not far away from the son of Ardrossan at Te Rapa was Wyndstorm (NZ) (Wyndspelle), his big-striding stablemate who ran home boldly into fourth, despite an unfavourable draw putting him out of his usual pattern.

“He was good too, it was only his third start and he’s still the big baby of the group,” Wynyard said. “He’s still learning, when he gets in behind horses he’s still doing a couple of things wrong.

“I think he’s a horse that will be better jumping out and putting himself there, but he drew 14 at Te Rapa so we had to go back and he had to make his run in between horses. He’s going to take a lot from that.

“In a smaller field and with the gate speed he’s got, I think he’ll be a bit handier on Saturday, which should suit him more.”

It will very much be a case of friends becoming rivals on Saturday, with Wynyard indicating the pair scarcely leave each other’s side in the stable.

“They work together every day, they pace work together, gallop together and live next to each other,” Wynyard said. “They’ve done the exact same in between times.”

Regardless of Saturday’s result, Wynyard is rapt with how her team has come together throughout the busy season and gives plenty of credit to her partner, jockey Ryan Elliot.

“I’ve been very lucky, I’ve got great owners around me and great staff,” she said. “I’m so blessed to have Ryan to ride work with me every day and ride the horses on raceday as well, it’s a huge help.

“You can’t make a slow horse fast, so for those ones that are up there, you just do your best by them and hope they can go out there and produce their best on raceday.

“Hopefully I can keep repaying the owners for supporting me with very nice horses.”

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