High Spirits, under a vigorous ride from jockey Cameron Lammas, gets in the deciding stride over Peso to win the 2100-metre maiden race at last Sunday's Hastings races.
After a reasonably quiet start to the new racing season Hastings stables have struck form with a vengeance with the training centre producing five winners in the past fortnight.
Saint Kitt started the ball rolling when he returned to his best form with a decisive victory in the Banks Peninsula Cup (2200m) at Motukarara on October 30 for trainer and part-owner Kelly Burne.
Then John Bary chalked up three wins last weekend while Sue Thompson and Mick Brown added to the tally by picking up a home track success on Sunday.
John Bary, who only had one winner in the first three months of the new season, saddled up two winners at Saturday's premier meeting at Riccarton and one the following day on his home track at Hastings.
Bary sent a team of horses down to the South Island a month ago with the aim of having them peaking for the New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton.
He was rewarded last Saturday with wins by Lady Zafira in the Listed $50,000 Pegasus Handicap and Tiger Tim in a $30,000 Rating 85 race.
Lady Zafira showed a welcome return to form and made up for a disastrous trip to the Ashburton meeting three weeks before where she was a late scratching after becoming fractious in the barrier, rearing up and flipping over.
She suffered minor injuries in that incident and Bary had a special thank-you for stable employee Zane Thomson and a Christchurch vet for getting her back to full fitness in time to contest the Pegasus Stakes at Riccarton last Saturday.
The Iffraaj mare dwelt at the start of the 1000m event and was several lengths off the pace entering the last 400m.
But she accelerated quickly to lodge a claim wide out and raced clear in the final stages to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
It was Lady Zafira's fifth win from 23 starts and her first since she took out a Rating 85 race over 1600m at Hastings in April.
Bary said Lady Zafira showed plenty of ability from the time she first entered his stable and won her second start, over 1200m at Hastings in November 2014.
"She's always been able to run times but she is one of those horses that has had a few problems," Bary said.
"She had a bone chip in a knee that had to be operated on and she is just starting to come into her own now."
The 6-year-old is raced by the Lady Zafira Syndicate, a 16-member group that includes seven Hawke's Bay people.
The syndicate members are Pat and Rosie Laffey, Jim Wallace, Emma Laffey and Jeremy Laffey from Masterton, Wink and Andrew Hildreth, Bryon and Karen Strachan, Rob Hardie, Noel Lister and Vicki Sanders from Hawke's Bay and Mark and Kathryn Parker, Caitlin Laffey and Tyson Parker, who all live in Australia.
Tiger Tim is another horse that has always had plenty of ability and he showed a glimpse of it when he out-finished Court Order after a head-to-head tussle over the final stages of last Saturday's 1600m event. There was only a head separating the two horses at the finish.
It was Tiger Tim's third start back in a new campaign and followed an encouraging run for sixth over 1600m at Ashburton on October 15.
The big Alamosa 5-year-old has now won four races from only 13 starts for his Palmerston North owner-breeders Bill Gleeson and Peter Gillespie.
Bary said Tiger Tim was still learning to race properly but was a horse with a big stride and a high cruising speed.
He said he started the horse over 2400m at Trentham in January but he was still weak then and wasn't ready for it.
The horse is now a lot stronger now and is likely to be tried again over longer distances this campaign.
Owners now in high spirits
The large group of owners involved with the well-bred mare High Spirits were rewarded for their patience when she produced an outstanding finishing burst to win the 2100m maiden race at last Sunday's Hawke's Bay meeting.
Jockey Cameron Lammas had the 4-year-old back equal last coming to the home turn but angled her to the outside and she powered home to get up and snatch a last-stride win over another Hastings-trained horse, Peso.
It was the mare's ninth start, with her previous best placings being a second over 1600m at Wanganui in February and a third over 1600m at Waipukurau in March.
Hastings couple Hylton and Colleen Gudsell own a 40 per cent share in High Spirits and the other 60 per cent is spread between 12 other people, including trainer John Bary.
The others are Bruce and Annette Keighley, Richard Koorey, John McLaughlin, Richard Grocott, Bruce Day, Tim Mitchell, Paul Lamb, Clem Griffiths, Wayne Norwood and Richard Curtis. Several of them live in Hawke's Bay and for some it was their first win.
John Bary said High Spirits always had the ability but had been a work in progress.
"She had a problem of being slow out of the gates and we had to fix that. Then she was field-shy but we've got her over that too," he said.
Deserved success
The husband-and-wife training partnership of Mick Brown and Sue Thompson have not had much luck in recent months but things could finally be on the improve after Zed Leppelin's win in a Rating 65 race over 2100m at last Sunday's Hawke's Bay meeting.
The Thompson/Brown stable produced Designated Driver to finish second behind Sacred Star in last year's Group 1 Telegraph Sprint (1200m) at Trentham and also picked up several stakes race placings with the mare this year before she was suddenly retired and sold.
They also prepared Missy Moo to win her first race, back in September last year, only to have her leave their stable and be transferred to Wanganui's Fraser Auret during the winter.
That horse, owned by Hawke's Bay couple Mike and Bronwyn Griffin, chalked up her second win in a row when taking out a Rating 65 race over 1360m at Otaki on Melbourne Cup day.
So it was good to see the Thompson/Brown colours back in the winner's circle on Sunday with Zed Leppelin, a horse that has also caused them a few heartaches in recent months.
Jockey Johnathan Parkes settled Zed Leppelin in second place in the early stages of Sunday's 2100m event before taking him to the front inside the last 800m. They put a break on their rivals rounding the home bend and held on to win by three-quarters of a length.
Zed Leppelin was recording his second win from 18 starts, the first of them coming in a 1400m maiden race at Hastings in June last year.
The Zed 7-year-old was bred by Hawke's Bay couple Peter and Sharon Robertson and is raced by them in partnership with Hong Kong-based Marcus Glucina.
Impressive fresh up win
Hawke's Bay-owned Sewreel, who was rated just below the best 3-year-old fillies of last season, showed she has come back in tremendous order with a game fresh up win in a $22,500 Rating 75 race over 1400m at Te Rapa last Saturday.
The Savabeel mare was having her first start since finishing unplaced in the Group 3 Lowland Stakes (2100m) at Hastings in March and had only had one soft trial over 1200ms at Cambridge in September to help fit her for her return.
Sewreel and another talented 4-year-old, Hiflyer, sorted themselves out from the rest of the field inside the last 300m of Saturday's and fought a great tussle to the line, with Sewreel getting the decision by a neck.
It was the mare's fourth win from only eight starts and she has also recorded a second. She was a $42,000 purchase from the 2014 Karaka yearling sales and is owned by Murray and Jo Andersen, Rod and Sylvia Agnew, Mike and Sharyn Craig, Dennis and Pip Glenn, Adrian and Darren Herd, Cheryl Leonard, Jenny Morison, Robyn Sinclair and Kathleen Wright.
All except Robyn Sinclair live in Hawke's Bay and she resides in Feilding.
Injury blow for smart colt
The racing future for Mongolian Falcon is uncertain after he pulled up lame following his disappointing performance in last Saturday's Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas at Riccarton.
"He came back from the race with a bone chip on his knee," co-trainer Donna Logan said.
"That definitely explains his disappointing performance. Leith [Innes] said he felt brilliant up to about the 600m mark, but just couldn't stretch out after that.
"We're consulting with vets from New Zealand and Australia about our options with this chip. Unfortunately it's not in a good location.
"So at this stage we don't really have any prognosis for his return to racing. We'll just have to wait and see."
Mongolian Falcon, who started favourite for the New Zealand 2000 Guineas, was an outstanding five-length winner of the Group 2 Hawke's Bay Guineas (1400m) at Hastings on October 1.
Missing from Cup field
Pacorus, a promising stayer who is part-owned by Havelock North couple Dave and Jenny Morison, is a notable absentee from tomorrow's Group 2 New Zealand Cup at Riccarton.
The horse's Cambridge trainer Chris Wood wasn't satisfied with his trackwork on Tuesday morning and he has sent the Tavistock 5-year-old for a spell.
"He's out, he's not quite 100 per cent," Wood said. "He galloped okay without getting carried away.
"It's a $6000 to $7000 exercise to fly them down there and the way Nymph Monte won last Saturday you wouldn't want to be going down there unless you're confident your horse is 110 per cent.
"He had a blood infection recently and we got that sorted out and his blood was good, but he just wasn't working like he was prior to that."
Pacorus has been one of the brighter staying prospects to emerge this year, going from a maiden success at Matamata in January to spring open handicap victories in the Mitchelson and Egmont Cups.
"He's still got a lot of improvement in him and he'll be a better horse in the autumn - we'll look around for some nice races for him then," Wood said.
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