MR INCREDIBULL RELISHES WINTER FOOTING

[Chief Stipe]

Trainer Chris Wood is hopeful he may have unearthed a leading prospect for the deep winter tracks over the next few months after Mr Incredibull broke his maiden status at Te Awamutu on Sunday.

The Encosta De Lago four-year-old had provided glimpses of potential in his four raceday starts prior to Sunday’s 1400m maiden contest including an eye-catching finish for fifth at his last start at Pukekohe.

Relishing the testing Slow9 track conditions on offer at Te Awamutu, Mr Incredibull looped the field at the 600m for rider Matt Cameron to dispute the pace before forging clear in the run home to score by a comfortable two and a half-length margin.

Wood was delighted with the win as he shares in the ownership of the horse with Highview Stud principal Brent Gillovic and a syndicate of friends put together by another stable client.

“It was nice to get the win as he hasn’t had a lot of luck so far in his career,” Wood said.

“He was supposed to be sold up to Hong Kong but failed the vet so Brent Gillovic asked me if I wanted to race him.

“One of the owners of Wooden Edge, Sam Durrant, got eight to ten of his mates together and they took a share while Gilly and I own the rest.”

Wood believes Mr Incredibull has what it takes to work through the grades over the winter months provided he can find some suitable races for him.

“He certainly seemed to handle that track today once he got out wide and rolling into it,” he said.

“If that’s the case then he should be able to pick up another win or two as the real winter tracks are now upon us.

“The problem will be the rating 65 grade he is now in as he meets horses that have won three or four times that drop back into the grade and that makes it hard for the one-win horse to compete.

“I would like to see them reinstate a one-win only class in that grade to help those horses that struggle once they clear maidens.”

The win for Wood came in a timely fashion as the meeting was abandoned shortly afterwards.

Rider Jasmine Fawcett parted company with the Andrew Meikle-trained Gingee in race four near the 800m mark when amongst a group of five runners who were disputing the lead at that point of the race.

Fawcett was taken to Waikato Hospital for x-rays that confirmed a broken arm but thankfully suffered no other major injuries in the nasty incident.

Senior riders conducted an inspection of the track at the point of the fall and after discussions with stipendiary stewards, the decision was made to abandon the meeting.

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