Moonlight Hustler finally shines for her HB connections

Moonlight Hustler and jockey Craig Grylls are out on their own as they cross the finish line for a decisive win in a maiden 2100m race at Hastings on Thursday of last week. Photo / Supplied

There was no more deserving winner at last week’s Hawke’s Bay race meeting than the Hawke’s Bay-owned and trained Moonlight Hustler.

The Rip Van Winkle five-year-old was chalking up her first victory from 12 starts but had strung together three consecutive second placings in her three most recent outings and had been unlucky on more than one occasion.

Moonlight Hustler is prepared by Otane-based trainer-jockey Kate Hercock but she decided not to ride the horse last week and instead handed the reins over to the country’s leading jockey Craig Grylls for the maiden 2100m event.

It was the first time Moonlight Hustler had raced over a distance further than 1600m. Grylls positioned the mare perfectly in the early running, trailing the leader, and bided his time until the home straight.

He then angled his mount across heels to tackle the pacemaking Whisky Mac with 300m to run. The latter kicked on well but Moonlight Hustler soon gained the ascendency and worked clear over the final stages for an impressive three-length victory.

Moonlight Hustler was bred by Barry Smyth, a long-time Hawke’s Bay thoroughbred owner-breeder and a former Hawke’s Bay Racing board member.

Smyth has retained a racing share in the mare and has also leased out shares to several other Hawke’s Bay people, many of whom are golf-playing mates at the Hastings Golf Club.

The other shareholders are Napier-based jeweller David McClurg, Malcolm Campbell, John McKenzie, Allan Pratt, Craig Riddiford, Simon Turner, Neil White, Paul Williams and The Punters Grubs Syndicate, which is a group that includes Smyth’s son David and several of his close mates.

The mare is out of the Al Akbar mare Moonlighter and is a half-sister to Mizzena, a mare by Zed who has won five races, three of them over fences.

Smyth decided to wind down his thoroughbred breeding interests a few years ago and gifted Moonlighter to Jeff Bliss, who operates a small Taranaki stud and stands the stallion Keano. He now has a yearling filly by that sire out of the mare.

Smyth said this week that Moonlight Hustler is a mare that has just needed time and said Hercock has shown a lot of patience with the horse.

“You have got to give Kate credit for the way she has handled her. She was a horse that didn’t know much for a start but now it looks like the penny has finally dropped,” Smyth said.

“It was a thrill to see her go so well over that extra distance.”

Smyth added that Moonlight Hustler is now having a two-week freshen up in the paddock and will then be prepared for an autumn campaign.

A winning combination

Hastings trainer John Bary heaped praise on jockey Warren Kennedy after the South African-born rider completed a winning double for him in the space of four days at Trentham last Saturday.

Kennedy steered the Bary-trained Bold Iris to win a $60,000 Rating 65 race over 1400m on Wellington Cup day and four days earlier he had also been successful on another stable runner, Lowe Flying, in the two-year-old race at Matamata.

“It gives you a lot of confidence when you put someone like him (Kennedy) on,” Bary said after Bold Iris’s victory at Trentham.

“He got her up travelling and just let her roll around the field and then got her into the right party of the track in the straight. It was a great ride.”

Kennedy is one of three experienced overseas jockeys who arrived in New Zealand late last year, the others being fellow South African Craig Zackey and Irish-born Joe Doyle. All three have made a huge impact on the New Zealand racing scene.

Kennedy also won the $1 million Karaka Million Three-year-old Classic (1600m) at Pukekohe a fortnight ago while Zackey took out the $1 million Karaka Million Two-year-old Classic (1200m) on the same day.

Not to be outdone, Joe Doyle notched his biggest win on New Zealand soil when successful aboard Leaderboard in last Saturday’s $300,000 Wellington Cup (3200m) at Trentham.

Bold Iris was last to begin from the 1400m barrier in last Saturday’s Trentham race but Kennedy never panicked, getting the mare to settle into a good rhythm before asking her to improve around the field entering the last 600m.

The mare was the widest runner turning into the home straight but kept up a strong finish down the outside to win by half a length and record her fourth success from 23 starts.

Bold Iris was bred by Waipukurau couple Peter and Ann Evans and they race her in partnership with Auckland-based son Royce and four other Hawke’s Bay people, John Bateman, Lyn Bibby and the brothers Allan and Wayne Chittick.

She is out of the Sandtrap mare Aribasan and closely related to Sanriba, a horse that recorded five wins, 10 seconds and 11 thirds for Peter and Ann Evans several years ago.

Recognition for top race mare

Outstanding race mare Melody Belle will be inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall Of Fame at a special dinner in Hamilton on Sunday, May 7.

The Commands mare, who was raced by a 34-member syndicate that included Waipukurau couple Trevor and Debbie Walters, was the winner of 19 races from 41 starts and stakes of $4,265,000.

Melody Belle was sold for $57,500 at the 2016 NZB National Yearling Sale to the bid of Te Akau principal David Ellis, going on to race in the colours of the Fortuna Melody Belle Syndicate under the training of Jamie Richards and Stephen Autridge for her first two seasons and then solely by Richards.

She was a major winner every season from two to six years, voted New Zealand Champion 2YO in 2016-17, Champion Sprinter-Miler in 2018-19 and 2019-20, Champion Middle Distance Horse in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and New Zealand Horse of the Year in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Melody Belle’s crowning glory was her March 2021 victory in the Group 1 New Zealand Stakes (2000m), when she broke Sunline’s record of 13 Group 1 wins. Her 14 Group 1 victories came at two, four, five and six years, ranging in distance from 1400m to 2040m.

She also made history in 2019 as the first horse to complete the Hawke’s Bay weight-for-age Triple Crown, winning the Tarzino Trophy (1400m), Windsor Park Plate (1600m) and Livamol Classic (2040m).

A month after that hat-trick she added the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington.

“Her win on the VRC Derby card is one that stands out in so many memories of her fantastic career,” said Fortuna Syndications principal John Galvin. “That relentless run from the back all the way up the Flemington straight, it was typical of her style.

“The great thing about this great mare is that she raced in the very best races from two to six years. Yet through that whole time she never had any soundness issues, and when it came time for her retirement, she did so on her terms.”

Melody Belle was sold for $2.6million at a Gold Coast broodmare sale in May 2021.

A half-sister to Melody Belle, by Pierro, sold for $500,000 at last Monday’s second day of the Karaka yearling sales and was purchased by an Australian buyer.

Change of plans for La Crique

Simon and Katrina Alexander are feeling a sense of deja vue with their quality mare La Crique.

Her spring preparation was hampered by wet weather and the Matamata trainers have been met with the same fate this summer.

They elected to withdraw La Crique from the Group 1 Thorndon Mile (1600m) at Trentham last Saturday after the track was downgraded to a Heavy10.

While disappointed about bypassing the mile feature, the Alexanders are trying to find the silver lining, believing the trip down south has benefited their mare.

“It would have been a nice to have been able to run her but kicking off her campaign we didn’t want to do it on that type of ground,” Katrina Alexander said.

“It is frustrating. It is not that she doesn’t handle wet tracks. It’s just that we don’t want to do that to her.

“Craig (Grylls, jockey) was happy with the decision, he was quite adamant that we didn’t need to do that (run). By the time he had ridden in a few more races he walked past me and said I had done the right thing.

“The owners were happy about the decision too. The horse comes first, so collectively we were happy with the decision that was made.

“It was her first trip away since Melbourne last year. She travelled away beautifully, ate everything in sight and had quite a lovely experience.

“It hasn’t done her any harm, it would have had the benefit of bringing her on slightly without having a race.”

Alexander has now set her sights closer to home with La Crique, with the Group 1 $300,000 BCD Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa next Saturday her next likely target.

“The fact that it is a home venue and then she can go on to the Group 1 $300,000 El Chapo Cars Weight-for-age Classic (1600m) at Otaki on February 25. We will reassess things after that.”