Brad and Wayne Chittick hold up the winner’s sash after Pacific Princess broke through for a maiden success at Trentham last Saturday. Two strappers from trainer John Bary’s stable attend to the mare in the background.
John Jenkins is a longtime racing journalist based in Hawke’s Bay
Waipukurau racehorse owner Wayne Chittick received the ultimate birthday present when Pacific Princess broke through for a maiden victory at last Saturday’s Marton meeting at Wellington.
Chittick turned 76 on the day and he and several members of his family were on course at Trentham to celebrate the win by Pacific Princess in the $20,000 Carrfields Livestock and Wools Maiden (1400m).
Chittick owns the 5-year-old mare in partnership with his son and daughter-in-law, Brad and Hannah, his Hastings-based brother Allen, their cousin Garry Chittick from Waikato Stud, and Waipukurau’s Peter Evans.
Given that it was the first race on the Trentham programme, there was plenty of celebrating done during the remainder of the day, with Wayne Chittick elated that he was able to share the moment with his Masterton-based son and daughter-in-law.
“It is the first horse that they have owned a share in,” Chittick said.
“I gifted them a 5% share each out of my overall share.”
Pacific Princess is prepared at Hastings by John Bary, a multiple Group 1 winning trainer who has wound down his operation in recent years. It was his first training success of the new season, but he has only 14 horses in work at the moment.
Pacific Princess certainly deserved to break through for a maiden win after recording four seconds and a third from her previous 12 starts, and it was a good training feat to have her ready to win in her first start for five months.
“She hasn’t had a lot of luck in some of her starts and has only just gone down a couple of times,” Chittick added.
One of those close seconds was over 1600m at Whanganui back in April, where she was hampered at the start and then forced to cover plenty of extra ground before powering home late to finish only half a neck from the winner.
Pacific Princess was bred by the Chitticks and descends from a family they have bred and raced horses from for decades.
She is by the Waikato Stud-based stallion Ocean Park out of the Savabeel mare Savarose, while her grandam was the Balmerino mare Longlands.
Savarose won only one race but is the dam of the four-race winner Lilly Laguna and has also left Savachi Boy, a Tivaci 3-year-old who lined up at Trentham last Saturday too and turned in an encouraging run for fourth in a 1200m maiden.
Chittick said Pacific Princess is likely to have her next start at Ōtaki on October 11, in either a Rating 65 race or the Special Conditions Maiden event, both races carrying a stake of $65,000.
Taika brings up 300th win for Nelson
Hastings-based Paul Nelson brought up his 300th New Zealand training success in style when he and co-trainer Corrina McDougal produced Taika to take out the inaugural running of the $150,000 J Swap Great New Zealand Hurdle at Te Aroha on Friday of last week.
It not only brought up a personal milestone for Nelson, but it also added to his domination of New Zealand’s richest hurdle event.
The race was formerly the Great Northern Hurdle, when run at Ellerslie, and was won a record six times by the Nelson stable.
Paul Nelson began his record-breaking haul in the Northern when Chibuli took out the race in 2002, followed by Just Not Cricket in 2006 and 2007. McDougal joined him in partnership during the 2018-19 season, and they have shared subsequent victories with The Cossack (2020 and 2021), Nedwin (2023) and now Taika.
No other trainer has won the Great Northern Hurdle more than four times.
Taika’s victory also brought up the 51st Group or Prestige race win for Nelson.
Not only did he and McDougal claim the top prize in the race, but they also completed the quinella, with The Bambino finishing a game second behind Taika.
McDougal represented the stable on course at Te Aroha while Nelson continues his recovery from knee replacement surgery a month ago.
The Nelson/McDougal stable had a three-pronged attack on the 4200m feature with Taika the least fancied at 11 to one while Suliman and The Bambino were both well supported.
Suliman won the Grand National Hurdles (4200m) at Riccarton last month, while The Bambino burst on to the scene with back-to-back open hurdle victories at Woodville in his last two starts on August 17 and September 7.
But Mathew Gillies had guided Taika into fourth place behind The Bambino in the second of those Woodville races, and the prospect of better track conditions at Te Aroha gave the jockey confidence he could return to his best form.
Gillies took up a handy position in second place, tracking the front-running Happy Star for most of the two laps of the Te Aroha circuit.
The field bunched heading down the back straight the final time, and the race seemed to be changing complexion rapidly as backmarkers surged into contention.
Through it all, Taika maintained his rhythm. He moved a length in front at the second-last hurdle and then cleared the last beautifully before going on to win by a length and a half.
The Bambino finished strongly in second, while defending champion Lord Spencer was only a short head behind in third.
It was a special triumph for Gillies, who recently returned to the jumps jockey ranks after spending more than two seasons on the sidelines.
“It’s just a pleasure to come back after so long away and still being able to compete with everyone,” Gillies said. “It’s really good.
Taika is part-owned by Paul Nelson and his brother Mark in partnership with Ken Garnett. The 9-year-old son of Mettre En Jeu has now had 34 starts for seven wins, six placings and $256,624 in prizemoney. His 18 starts over hurdles have produced five wins and six minor placings for $239,767 in stakes.
The Nelson/McDougal stable experienced both the highs and lows at this year’s inaugural Te Aroha jumps carnival.
They won the feature hurdle race on the first day with Taika but had the misfortune to see their charge Nedwin lose his rider, when clear in the lead, with 1000m to run in the $200,000 Ben & Ryan Foote Great New Zealand Steeplechase on the second day.
Nedwin had taken over and looked to be travelling boldly before he dipped on landing and dropped Hamish McNeill at the fourth-to-last fence.
That left the race wide open, and it was the race favourite, Jesko, who finally prevailed in the 6200m event, capping off a phenomenal jumping campaign this year.
The son of Atlante started the winter as a maiden over the big fences but, under the guidance of co-trainer and rider Shaun Fannin, the gelding swept through the ranks with victories in the Manawatu Steeplechase (4000m), Wellington Steeplechase (4900m) and Koral Steeplechase (4250m), before a game second behind Captains Run in the Grand National Steeplechase (5600m) in early August.
Fannin kept Jesko in touch with the pacemakers throughout the marathon three laps of the Te Aroha course, and he was right in contention going down the back straight for the last time.
The gelding needed a little bit of encouragement from Fannin to pick up near the 800m, but as he always does, he seemed to find another gear and hit the lead a long way from home. His main danger turned out to be one of the outsiders, Mr Fabulous, who made a brief challenge. But Jesko showed his class late, navigating the final two fences and powering to the line to score by 4-3/4 lengths.
Fannin added a first Great New Zealand Steeplechase crown to his six Great Northern wins in the saddle, and this was undoubtedly that little bit more special, having prepared the gelding alongside his wife, Hazel Fannin.
Bred by Goodwood Stud, Jesko was purchased by Fannin for just $3300 in late 2021, and four years later, the gelding has accumulated $355,350 in prizemoney with nine victories in 27 starts.
Jesko is raced by a large group including the Hawke’s Bay-based Blast Off Syndicate, which owns a 30% share.
There are 10 people involved in the Blast Off Syndicate, including Shaun Fannin’s mother, Jill, Jeremy and Sharron White, Jill Deadman, Liz Hearn, Marcia Mabey and Judy Nelson from Hastings, Rachel Martin (Wairoa) and Sue Dykes and Heather McDonald from Dannevirke.
Ka Ying Rising arrives in Aussie
After a couple of years dominating the world’s sprinting ranks in Hong Kong, New Zealand-bred sensation Ka Ying Rising has returned to Australian soil.
The 5-year-old son of Shamexpress was bred by Marton horseman Fraser Auret and was purchased out of his barn after a jumpout at Levin and subsequently joined Lindsay Park’s Victorian stable.
He had two jumpouts at Flemington before winning a 1000m trial at Moe for trainers Ben and JD Hayes and joining their father, David, in Hong Kong.
Ka Ying Rising has been a marvel in the competitive racing jurisdiction, winning 14 of his 16 starts, including four at elite-level, and has accrued more than HK$68 million (NZ$14.9m) in prizemoney.
His deeds on the track have resulted in his being crowned Hong Kong Horse of the Year, Hong Kong Champion Sprinter, Hong Kong Champion 4-Year-Old, Hong Kong Champion Griffin, and the highest-rated sprinter in the world.
He has returned to Australia to contest next month’s A$20m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick, where he will represent the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s slot in the world’s richest race on turf.
The 5-year-old landed in Sydney on Monday and was transported to the Canterbury Quarantine Facility, where he will serve a two-week isolation period. He is reported to have settled in well.