Galileo Invader (right) jumps to the front at the last fence in a maiden hurdle race at Woodville last week. The Hastings-owned and trained gelding raced clear in the run to the line to win by 1-1/2 lengths.
Hawke’s Bay owner-breeder Ivan Grieve has let one top jumper slip through his hands, but he might have another one coming on after Galileo Invader scored a decisive 1-1/2 length win in a maiden hurdle race at Woodville last Thursday.
Grieve has bred and raced numerous horses over the years, but is best known as the breeder and former owner of champion jumper The Cossack.
Grieve initially raced the Mastercraftsman gelding from the Hastings stable of John Bary, who trained him for two flat wins, a second and a third from his first 21 starts and prepared him to finish fourth in his hurdle debut over 2800m at Awapuni in June 2019.
Ivan Grieve then decided to sell the horse to his brother Peter, who took in his son Doug, good friend John Frizzell and another Hastings trainer in Paul Nelson to help race the horse.
The Cossack was then transferred to the stable of Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal to concentrate on a jumping career and has gone on to win another 15 races - nine over hurdles and four in steeplechases.
His jumping wins include two Great Northern Hurdles, a Grand National Hurdle, a Wellington Hurdle, a Hawke’s Bay Hurdle, a Waikato Hurdle, a Waikato Steeplechase and a Pakuranga Hunt Cup Steeplechase. He also finished second in last year’s Australian Grand National Steeplechase and has been crowned New Zealand’s Champion Jumper of the Year for two consecutive years.
While still smarting from the fact that he prematurely sold a horse that has gone on to win more than $600,000 in stakemoney, Grieve has never lost the desire to breed and race thoroughbreds. This is despite having to endure several more setbacks on the way.
He bred Galileo Invader, who is by Mongolian Khan out of the Thorn Park mare Galileo Queen, who was an unraced half-sister to The Cossack.
He had high hopes that Galileo Queen would enhance the breed, but Galileo Invader was to be her only progeny. He next mated the mare with successful sire Shamexpress but, unfortunately, both the mare and foal died.
He still had The Cossack’s dam Stellardelmar to breed from and was again enthusiastic after she got in-foal to successful sire Vanbrugh last year. But the mare suddenly dropped dead in a paddock at Bary’s property earlier this year, while carrying the foal.
“We were hoping for a good result from that mating and the mare was looking good,” Grieve said this week.
“John checked on her in the morning and she was fine. Then, in the afternoon, she was lying in the paddock dead. They think it was a heart attack.”
Besides being the dam of The Cossack, Stellardelmar had also produced the two-race winner Galileo Express. Grieve has an unraced two-year-old filly by Turn Me Loose out of the mare coming on.
“She is in work with John Bary and is a nice type,” Grieve said.
“She is the last one out of the breed and I think she might be all right.”
Ivan Grieve races Galileo Invader from the Nelson/McDougal stable and the horse was having his eighth start when he lined up in a 3000m hurdle race on the last jumping meeting of the year at Woodville last week.
The last four of those starts had been in hurdle races and, although unplaced in the first three, he was far from disgraced.
He had his chances extinguished when he hit the second-last fence when finishing sixth at Rotorua in August and was then hampered in the running when fifth at his next start, at Hawera. He then raced greenly and hit the last fence when eighth at Te Rapa on September 17.
“He’s a horse that has taken time and is still learning what it is all about,” Grieve said.
“He was always getting a bit tired the last bit on those early hurdle races but is now a lot fitter and better, and looks very promising for next year.”
Galileo Invader was ridden to victory last week by Matthew Cropp, who settled the horse just in behind the leaders for the early part of the race before improving to second coming to the home turn.
Cropp then sent the horse up to challenge the favourite, Sweet Taboo, for the lead entering the straight and Galileo Invader then edged ahead, jumping the last fence and proved too strong in the run to the line.
Australian win for Zambezi Khan
Hastings trainer Guy Lowry was credited with a winner in Australia on Tuesday when the promising three-year-old Zambezi Khan took out a $29,300 Rating 58 race over 1500m at Mornington.
Lowry prepared the Mongolian Khan filly for an impressive debut win over 1000m at Tauherenikau back in January and she followed that up with a creditable fifth in the Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m) at Trentham before being put aside for a spell.
She resumed with another fifth over 1100m at Taupo in August and her connections then indicated they would like to see her racing in Australia.
So Lowry decided to send her across the Tasman and has had her stabled with Victorian trainer Paddy Payne.
She made her Australian debut over 1200m at Seymour on September 17, where she only managed seventh out of eight runners over 1200m but was clearly in need of the run.
Zambezi Khan settled well back in a 12-horse field at Seymour on Tuesday and was still giving the leaders a big head-start entering the home straight. But she powered home to win by three-quarters of a length.
She was overlooked by the punters, returning a dividend of $14.20 for a win and $3.80 for a place on the New Zealand TAB.
Zambezi Khan is owned by Taradale couple Mark Evans and Lynette Hammington in partnership with their good friends Thomas and Julie Cowan, who live on the Gold Coast of Australia.
Evans paid $5000 for the filly when she was offered as a yearling on Gavelhouse in August 2021.
Sutherland transfers to Myers
Former Hastings apprentice jockey Lily Sutherland has officially transferred to the Wanganui stable of Kevin Myers.
The talented 19-year-old had been attached to the Hastings stable of Vicki Wilson since she started riding but hadspent the past few months on loan to Myers.
She said last week the move to Whanganui had given her more race-riding opportunities and Myers had also been of great assistance with her career.
“I’ll still be going back to Vicki’s place whenever I can to help out, but being based in Whanganui will be a lot more central,” Sutherland said.
Since being based in Whanganui, Sutherland’s career has certainly taken off. She has now kicked home more than 60 winners, three of them in black type races.
She brought up one of her biggest wins to date when successful aboard Kingfisher Lad in last Saturday’s $60,000 Egmont Cup (2100m) at Hawera and that followed a winning double at Woodville two days earlier.
Sutherland kicked home 49 winners last season and looks set to go past that mark this term with 11 wins already since August 1.
Final day of HB spring carnival
The Colliers Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival reaches its crescendo on the Hastings racetrack today with the running of the $450,000 Livamol Classic.
The 2040m event is the third, and most lucrative, Group 1 weight-for-age race of the carnival and has drawn an even field that includes last year’s winner Mustang Valley as well as fellow Group 1 winners Callsign Mav and Defibrillate, Hastings track specialist, the ultra-consistent Ladies Man and the up-and-coming gallopers Cakebytheocean and Pearl Of Alsace.
The day also features the running of the Group 3 $120,000 Valley D’Vine Restaurant Spring Sprint (1200m) and all other eight races carry a stake of $65,000.
The first race is timed for 12.20pm and the last at 5.38pm, with live entertainment, a fashion in the field competition and other great hospitality packages on offer.
There is a general admission charge of $30, with access to the Members Stand another $25.
Militarize has champion qualities
Leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller believes his Kiwi-bred three-year-old Militarize is a champion in the making and is confident he can take a step closer to that level when he contests today’s Group 1 $A3million Caulfield Guineas (1600m).
“He’s got all the qualities of a champion - he’s just got to tick a few more boxes to get to that status,” Waller said.
“He’s nice and compact; a well put-together horse. Not too big, not too small. Just perfect.”
The son of Dundeel has won four of his seven starts to date - including the Group 1 Inglis Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m), Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) and Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) - and bookmakers are expecting him to add a fourth to his tally this weekend.
“On ratings, he looks to have a pretty good hand in the race,” Waller said. “He’s certainly the benchmark.
“He’s certainly done it at two and he’s come back and been very impressive in the early part of his three-year-old year, so it’s just a matter of continuing to progress.
“Everything we ask of him, he delivers, and he delivers it in pretty good style.”
Militarize was bred by Jonathan Munz’s GSP Bloodstock Limited and is out of the English-bred mare Amerindia, who foaled Militarize at Haunui Farm in New Zealand.